Shadow Lands
by snappleducated
Summary: Sakura thought she had survival figured out until she met Naruto and Sasuke. There’s more to them than she could ever begin to guess, and suddenly, everything she’s got in a world that redefines danger. — Cyberpunk AU
1. South

**Author's Note: **Edited version! Some stuff was added, some stuff was cut, and incorrect grammar was taken out and burned. I'm sure there are still mistakes, but hopefully nothing too big. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.

**Shadow Lands**

"May I take your order?"

"If I get you as compensation, then sure," leered the customer.

"Charming," Sakura sighed.

Like she could expect any better from the residents of Nixon City. She had moved there illegally barely five months ago, on the cusp of fifteen, and had been too late in realizing that whatever opportunities she might have imagined were little more than army propaganda and government-based lies.

She hadn't even said goodbye to anyone when she had left. Not that there was anyone left so say it to. With her hair pink and lobbed off to her shoulders, people were able to overlook her still-childish face.

But it wasn't like she had really had any choice. There was no where to go, just one pile of ashes to the next, visiting the graves of relatives and neighbors, with sweepers forever at her heels. You could never trust the sweepers—they'd sell your life for fifty bucks, give you a gun and put you out on the battlefield.

The fact of the matter was; her side of the country was losing the war. The north was going to take over the entire thing in a few years, so the pressure was always rising. Child labor laws were abolished every day, now anyone over the age of ten was fair game for the army.

Sakura was very, very certain that she would not be joining. Even if it had all been a lie, she had come to Nixon for a purpose. There was a school here, even if the halls were mostly empty, and there was a way in. She just needed to get the money.

Hence putting up with losers that had nothing better to do than hit on skinny, under-aged girls.

"So, do you want a coffee or what?"

"Sure, gimme a double dose of sugar while you're at it, Su—,"

"Call me 'Sugar' and I'll get Jim," Sakura pointed at her large, male coworker, "To kick your ass. I'll be back with your coffee in a minute."

The problem with Sakura's job wasn't just the lousy pay or the vile customers. It was more the fact that this was the best she could do. She didn't have any references, and establishments were constantly shutting down because of over-taxation. Her paycheck was as dwindling as a politician's stance on the environment. She wouldn't be able to go anywhere with her current pay, she could barely afford to live in a two room apartment and feed herself.

Sighing, Sakura pushed her sweaty hair back behind her ears. Fluorescent lights combined with heating was apparently expensive, the restaurant she worked at now used heating lamps to illuminate their establishment. It gave Sakura a nasty burn on the back of her neck and made her feel like a cooked lobster.

"Here's your coffee," Sakura flashed the man a fake smile and trotted off before he could make anymore suggestive comments.

She was more than a little annoyed when he didn't even leave her a tip. Most people at least shelled out a few dollars, (she wasn't blaming them, poverty reigned supreme in the city,) but all he left were a few crumpled napkins and an indent in the booth seat.

She muttered sulkily, then marched away, refusing to clean up.

Hissing at the cold air, Sakura slid outside onto the cracked sidewalk. Walking briskly towards her home, Sakura kind of wished she had a boyfriend. It wasn't that she was lonely, exactly, just that it would have been kind of nice to have someone taller than five feet walking by your side on a dark, crime infested street.

_Only,_ said a snide voice in her head, _you could fall in love with him only to have him die, be forced into the army, cheat on you, or betray you and steal all your money._

Damned voices. To bad that they were usually right.

Sakura's shoe were wearing out. She only had one pair, and the rubber was cracking off. It looked like she was going to have to buy a new pair, along with another coat.

The wind flew down the street, tearing through her clothing and worming into her bones. She grit her teeth so they wouldn't chatter, and walked faster.

There were empty buildings with black and empty windows for eyes, smashed displays and an abundance of homeless people. Raiders frequented the area, (they were the ones smashing the windows,) and the homeless weren't just drunk bums anymore. Young children and middle aged adults had joined their ranks.

They didn't beg, they weren't stupid or hopeful enough to do so. No one had any money to give them. Sakura put her hands in her pockets to protect whatever change she had squirreled away within.

She walked past a group of sullen teens. They turned their faces to watch her, large eyes fixed on her grungy sweatshirt and peeling sneakers. They turned their backs to her, recognizing her as just another victim. The idea was slightly depressing.

There was a rag doll in the street; half mashed into the pavement. A few feet from her, people were huddled around a fire in a trashcan. Sakura checked them for knives and briefly joined them, warming her hands. They were burning the army flyers. She watched the edges of the paper curl inwards before breaking off and fluttering away—wisps of depressed ash.

She kept walking, passing dark alleys and busted street lamps. She let the smoggy light of the moon guide her, squinting through the haze so she wouldn't trip over the sidewalk.

A car, (that was rare,) sped past, loud music blaring through open windows. Raucous laughter accompanying the obnoxious base line. Sakura rolled her eyes and privately wished they crashed into a tree.

Actually, scratch that. She liked trees, and they were running short. She hoped they hit a land mine. Jerks.

The car had stopped, music turned down.

Breath quickening, Sakura slowed down, eyeing the car suspiciously. Were they raiders? Or maybe kidnappers?

She was probably overreacting. Sakura shoved her hands a little deeper in her pockets and kept going.

She would just walk past them. Wouldn't make eye contact or anything—she was just gong to walk past. Yep. Hum a happy little tune, and all that.

So of course, just as she was drawing level with the car a man got out. He wasn't even a man really, just a boy with a dirty face and a dirty knife in his hands. Sakura stepped back reflexively. Shit. Gangsters.

Gangsters weren't quite as nice as they had been back in the day. Back then, you joined a gang, did your crazy stuff, whatever. Nowadays, people shoved you up against a wall, waved pointy objects in your face and snarled that you had better join _or else_.

Sakura swallowed. She could deal with raiders, (run and hide,) kidnappers, (run and hide) and pressgangs, (run and hide.) She wasn't sure about gangsters though. It's hard to run from someone who's already seen you and has a car.

Sakura tried to look as unappealing a gang member as she could. The boy still walked up to her. "Hey," he said.

"Hi," Sakura said quietly, she surreptitiously shrank back from him. Her hands groping for something that she could use as a weapon.

"Hey girl, I dig the shoes," the boy leaned over her, backing her into the wall. One of Sakura's knuckles hit the freezing brick and cracked open to bleed. It was a shame he was about to slit her throat, he was rather handsome with his shaggy brown hair and angular face.

"Thanks," Sakura forced a smile, wondering how to get out of this. She was trapped and facing a larger opponent who had a weapon. Jolly good.

_Kick his ass,_ yelled the voice in he head, _what're you so afraid of?!_

_A lot of things,_ Sakura thought back, _spiders being one of them, knives being another._

"What're you doing out here all alone? Why don't you come hang with my friends and I?"

"My friends and me," Sakura corrected before she could stop herself, "And I—um,"

"She's already got a friend," said an unfamiliar voice. A warm arm was suddenly around Sakura's shoulder, tugging her towards the speaker. "Thanks for the concern though."

Backing away, the tall boy frowned before snapping his switchblade close and clambering back into the car. Sakura watched him drive off, her fingers trembling from the adrenaline rush. Breathing in shakily, she turned to face her 'savior,' who, by the way, still hadn't removed their arm.

A tall blond boy was frowning after the gangster's car, catty blue eyes narrowed as they disappeared. Three dark scars stretched across each cheek, giving the illusion of whiskers.

He seemed to notice that she had been staring, for he turned back and shot her a lop-sided smile, "You alright, skittle head?"

_What the hell?_ She wondered, before it hit her that her hair was still pink. She scowled at him, shrugging his arm off her and stalking away. "I could've handled it," she snapped over her shoulder.

He smiled ironically, "Right."

Sakura opened her mouth to make a retort, noticed that he was staring at her shaking hands and shoved them in her pockets. She turned to walk away.

She made it about ten steps before she heard it.

Marching.

So—the army. The army was coming.

Around her, people were running. If you were caught now, it meant they put you on the front lines. Sakura watched a young mother swing herself and her children into a dumpster to hide. An old man was crawling through jagged shards of glass to hide in an abandoned shoe store.

In sick horror, she turned back to look at the young man.

He was still standing in the middle of the street, an angry look about him as he waited for them to find him. They were only a few blocks away, now. He turned back and frowned at her. "Go on," he said, "Get out of here."

Was he really dumb enough to face down a whole group of soldiers? Well, whatever. It wasn't any of her business. Sakura turned and started to run, the cold air burning her lungs and seizing up her legs.

_But…he had saved her._

Sakura stopped again, indecision weighing her down.

_What did…?_

She turned back again, watching the boy. His hands were curled into fists, his back rigid as he stared down the horizon.

_Why…?_

The sun wouldn't be up for several hours. She wondered if he could live long enough to see it.

And then she was running, running towards him—not away, like she should have been. Her fingers wrapped around his wrist and tugged. "C'mon," she yelled, "Let's go!"

His mouth opened, eyes widening. He looked shocked that someone would care enough to pull him out of the path of a train. Desperately, she yanked. "Come _on_."

His mouth closed, he grinned at her. "Since you asked so nicely."

And then they were running, running away from the awful sounds of guns being fired, of men yelling and woman screaming.

And the steady hymn of soulless steps, tramping in tandem.

She led him down three alleys, and then dashed up the fire escape, the rusted iron shaking under her weight. When they finally reach the third floor she slid her window open and tumbled inside, the boy following her.

She was breathing raggedly, lungs and legs burning from the air and exertion of sprinting a mile. Beside her, her companion was doing the same. She rolled over to face him, "You can stay here 'till they're gone."

He blinked up at her, blue eyes confused. "My name's Naruto," he blurted out suddenly. It was apparently very important to him. A vague suspicion stirred at the back of her mind, nagging that she'd heard it before. She shrugged it off, calling herself ridiculous.

She shrugged, "Mine's Sakura. Wait a second and I'll get you a blanket." Carefully, she levered herself up and staggered into the bathroom/storage room.

Struggling slightly, she wrestled a moth-eaten comforter from under her stack of clothes and staggered back the main room. She pulled a pillow off her cot and tossed it at Naruto. He was still sitting on the floor, looking stunned. When the pillow bounced off his head, he seemed to return to reality, fixing her with an unnerving blue stare.

Sakura fidgeted nervously, not really sure if she wanted him gone, or to stay forever. "Are you hungry?" she asked suddenly. She drifted towards her plug-in teakettle, sticking it in the outlet and filling it with water.

Naruto nodded, "Do you have any ramen?"

"Please, that's like the only thing I can afford to eat." Sakura sighed.

Naruto grinned happily, "I love ramen, especially Ichiraku's."

Sakura sighed, "I work there."

"Really? Whoa! You must be like a ramen goddess!" Naruto was staring at her with something akin to hero worship in his eyes. Sakura shrugged.

"Not really, I don't actually make it. I just play the hostess and bus tables and stuff. Deal with icky customers with worse lines."

"Like, who?" Naruto, Sakura was discovering, was pretty talkative.

"Well, there was this pervert today who kept coming up with these _annoying_ ones. As if I'd seriously go for him."

Naruto grinned, bouncing on his heels, "Did he use the one about sugar?"

Sakura blinked, "Um, yeah. He did, why?"

"I invented that," Naruto boasted proudly.

A little disbelief flooded through her, mixed with horror. What exactly had she just let into her home? She took a breath, swelling up, "YOU WHAT?!" Sakura bellowed, hitting him over the head with an instant ramen package.

She was tired, and what's more, Naruto didn't seem like the type to be overly interested in raping, killing and pillaging. She didn't know why, really, but she felt sort of like she could trust him. She kept her pocket knife under her pillow, just in case.

Yawning, Sakura snuggled into her blankets. "Steal anything and I'll hunt you down," she sleepily mumbled at Naruto.

"Jeez, Sakura! Have a little faith in me, would ya?"

"You're a guy. Males cannot be trusted," Sakura said gravely.

"Don't automatically assume I'm male!" Naruto jokingly yelped.

The two of them fell asleep halfway through their banter.

* * *

Someone was trying to break in.

Sakura woke with a start, alarmed at the scratching noises coming from her door. Eyes wide, she fell out of her bed in alarm. Naruto was still sleeping, so the suspicion that he was perhaps stealing something was instantly banished.

Trembling, Sakura stared at her door. Was someone trying to kidnap her? Were those gangsters coming back to try again? Shakily, Sakura crawled to her feet and advanced on the door. Grasping through the dark, her fingers closed around one of her fold-out chairs. Sakura huddled behind the door and waited.

Several minutes later there was a soft click and the door swung outward. The dark silhouette of a messy haired head poked into her apartment. Sakura gripped her chair a little harder and raised it above her head.

"Naruto, are you in here—," the stranger started to whisper.

"KYAAAAAA!" Sakura screamed, swinging her chair down.

"AURGH—!" The stranger yelled before Sakura's chair connected with his head and he crumpled to the ground.

"HOLY SHIT," Yelled Naruto, sitting bolt upright in alarm and staring at Sakura like she was a mad axe murderer. Breathing hard, Sakura groped around for the light switch. When she finally found it, she and Naruto were confronted by the sight of a dark haired teenager sprawled face-down on Sakura's floor.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked, looking confused, "What's he dong here?"

Sakura gulped down air, laying a hand over her stuttering heart. "You know this guy?!" she demanded, "What the hell was he doing!?"

"I…think he was looking for me. Holy crap, you just knocked out Sasuke." Naruto looked slightly frightened before a vicious grin split across his features. "You are so my new hero."

Sakura was starting to feel slightly guilty for attacking someone who was only trying to find his friend. Naruto, obviously, didn't seem upset that she had basically brained his buddy. On the contrary, he was rolling around on her floor laughing.

Gingerly, Sakura knelt down and rolled Sasuke over. Her stomach lurched, eyes suddenly trained on his face. There was something almost frighteningly perfect about him, too terrible to be beautiful, and somehow more dangerously alluring for it.

And she had just knocked him out. So much for good first impressions.

To make matters worse, Sasuke groaned a little. It looked like he was starting to wake up.

Breathing abnormally fast, Sakura glanced first at Naruto, then at the incriminating evidence she was holding. Sasuke was probably going to wake up in about .3 seconds, meaning she had to do something fast.

So she did the only thing she could; shoved the chair at Naruto and tried to look innocent. She had a feeling that it wasn't working, she could feel her nostrils flaring—something that always happened when she felt guilty. She moved her hand up to block it at the same time Sasuke's eyes snapped open.

His vision was unfocused, (did she give him a concussion? She hoped not. Having a coma induced person hidden in the closet would be hard to explain,) but he defiantly saw the chair because he managed to stare at both her and Naruto, (one eye pointing at her, the other at Naruto. Her concern increased.) and growl, "I'm going to kill you."

Unsteadily, Sasuke lurched to his feet, glancing between the two of them—searching for the culprit.

Sakura was still trying to look innocent, her hand clamped over her nostrils. Naruto was shaking from mirth, chair at his feet. Slowly, Sasuke's head swung around to regard her coldly. Sakura twitched; he really was intimidating, despite looking like he had walked off the cover of a magazine.

And this was with his eyes crossed.

Her nostrils were flaring like crazy, but she slowly removed her hand from her mouth and prayed to all the gods she knew that he wouldn't see her nose.

"You," Sasuke said slowly and deliberately, "Hit me with a chair."

"I, uh, totally did not."

"It wasn't Naruto, he's smart enough to have jumped out a window by now."

"You don't scare me!" Naruto scoffed.

"Shut it."

"I, uh…it was an axe murderer. They like to stalk me." Sakura lied badly.

Sasuke arched one of his eyebrows aristocratically and opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Naruto who chose that moment to blurt out, "_Dude_. You just got owned by a _girl_." And he collapsed into a fit of giggles a second later.

Damn. There went her 'you-have-no-evidence' speech. She shot Naruto an evil glare to let him know that after she died, she was seriously going to haunt him for all eternity.

"What about axe murderers?" Sasuke smirked, still slightly cross-eyed. He was getting better though, meaning that she should probably start running _now_.

"I, um, well. You found Naruto!" Sakura said as cheerfully as she could whilst cowering slightly, "So…you can go now!" She gestured to the still open doorway. One of the neighbors chose that moment to poke their heads out from behind their door and snap, "If you don't shut up, I'll have you evacuated."

Sakura smiled apologetically, "Sorry, they'll be gone it a sec—"

Sasuke kicked the door closed in the middle of her sentence. Sakura stared open mouthed. Sure, he was pretty, but that didn't excuse him from being _rude_.

"…Do you want some tea or something? Because I don't have any. Or any money. So you see, it wouldn't benefit you at all to do anything to me since nobody cares and you don't have anything to gain from it."

"You hit me over the head with a chair." Sasuke pointed out, looking annoyed. She suddenly noticed how tall he was. Just standing in front of him made her feel like cowering.

Sakura's mind raced, trying to figure out what to do. Sasuke was obviously mad at her for hitting him over the head with a chair. Naruto, she supposed, might stop him from physically hurting her, or he could help Sasuke. They know that she didn't have anything valuable, and Naruto hadn't taken anything so they weren't looters or thieves.

Sakura ran a critical eye over them. Both were tall, maybe a little older than her. They were skinny, probably malnourished, but looked strong, like they'd survived a couple of fights.

And they both had large hands. The kind that looked kind of like they could wrap one around her head and squash it like a melon.

Obviously, she wasn't going to be able to talk her way out of this. Sasuke was still frowning and glaring at her, and Naruto was just watching in apparent amusement.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura curled one of her hands into a fist…

…and then ducked around Sasuke, wrenched open the door and bolted through it. Fight or flight, and all that.

She sprinted down the hall through the stairway door, _whoops_, nearly tripped, and then she raced down the stairs, two at a time. The iron framework cutting into her bare feet and making her wince, but she _had to get away_.

Sasuke was following her, though she had a decent lead on him, but his legs were longer and he could run faster. Even further back Naruto was yelling, sounding angry. "Sasuke, what the hell?! Leave her alone!"

It was hard to see, every other floor having busted the lighting, so Sakura half slipped-half ran her descent, desperately trying to escape.

Both of her palms slammed into the door at the bottom of the stairwell. Locked. Not good, _definitely_ not good. Frantically she turned, footsteps pounding down the landing above her. Hide. Hide, where? There wasn't—just the stairs behind her and only the door.

Feverishly, Sakura pushed at the door, _c'mon open!_ It groaned but stood firm. She let loose a cry of frustration and started rattling the knob.

_No. Wait, stop. Think about this._

This was just a door. Just a stupid, dingy old door in a stupid, dingy apartment complex. This building had to be at least 50 years old, and it hadn't been repaired in all that time.

Fear and dizziness swirled through her head, making it hard to think. The footsteps were coming closer; she thought Naruto might've shouted from a few floors up, telling Sasuke, "Knock it off, dammit!"

Pain suddenly spiked up her heel, racing up her tendons. Wincing, she glanced down at her bloody heel. Stupid iron, it was probably all rusty too…she had to clean that…

Wait, iron. Sakura's hands faltered, ceasing in the jiggling of the door knob. Carefully, she examined the hinges. The hinges were on the inside of the door, no one would think to replace them. Who would want to break _out_, after all? The door knob was steel, probably relatively new, but the hinges were…

Rusty iron. Above her, she could hear Sasuke's heel skid as he spun around the corner.

…this was going to hurt…

* * *

Sasuke jumped the last six steps, landing in a crouch on the floor below. Straightening, he looked around warily. Where did she go…?

If she popped out with another chair, he was seriously going to be pissed off. That first time had just been a lucky shot, he hadn't been expecting it.

Fine, let her attack him. He'd smash that stupid, pretty little face in—

"AUUUUUGH!" Someone yelled from behind him.

Whirling around, he was just in time to see Sakura roll out from under the stairs and charge at him. Was she crazy? Did she not see that she was wearing shorts and a T-shirt whereas he had on metal toed boots and brass knuckled gloves?

Sasuke's hand automatically flew to the army knife in his hip pocket.

She was so close now that could see the tiny freckles on her nose, almost see the individual muscles tightening around her jaw…

And then she was shooting past him and slamming all one hundred pounds of herself into a magnificent kick at the hinges on the door.

She connected, and the frame gave way with an awful, screeching _whine_, before the door was ripped partially from its frame.

Sakura had fallen backwards, crying a little as she wrapped her hands around one of her feet. Grinding her teeth together, she squeezed through the triangle of opening that had been made, and crawled out into the blackness.

Sasuke stared.

Okay, so she was even dumber than he had given her credit for.

* * *

Sakura hopped painfully towards a wall, sinking down it gratefully and propping herself up against it with a sigh.

Great. Now she had no home, money, food or anything to read. Life really sucked.

And her foot really, really hurt.

Whimpering, she pulled it into her chest and rocked around it protectively. It wasn't the cuts that were bothering her. Sakura had taken enough drugs over the years and been to enough clinics to know that her immune system would be able to deal with anything nasty. What bothered her was the sheer enormity of the pain, even when she wasn't putting any pressure on it.

It might've had to do with how one of the bones had made a new lump under her skin. Apparently, she had dislodged it or broken it or something.

That was bad. That was very, very bad, since not only did it hurt like hell, but if she didn't get it fixed, she wouldn't be able to run. Running was essential if you wanted to survive.

She glanced up and down the dark alley. If she didn't hide soon, then she might as well put a 'free organ donor' sign above her head and hand out knives.

She'd heard looters resorted to that sometimes—if they couldn't find anything good to sell, then they'd sell the people the got a hold of. Or rather, bits and pieces of them. Both North and South were big on shoving new hearts into old bodies, letting their leaders live forever. It didn't matter where it came from, looters didn't have a side they needed to stay on.

Swallowing hard, Sakura wiped away her tears and snot with the hem of her shirt and dragged herself towards a dumpster. It would, at least, be warmer inside. That was another problem, if she stayed outside too long, then she was going to either die or loose some toes to frostbite.

Was cold good for infections? Probably, bacteria liked warm, moist places. Such as the dumpster she was about to toss herself inside. If she hadn't been so set on surviving, Sakura would've called herself an idiot.

Worming her way between the plastic bags, she decided to anyway.

But the two homicidal maniacs would be gone in the morning. When they left, she could take a day off work and patch herself up. (And then beg her boss not to fire her, since employment was a rather desirable position.)

* * *

But they weren't gone in the morning.

They actually didn't even wake up until eleven, meaning Sakura was forced to hide on the landing for a grand total of three hours. They didn't heat public buildings anymore either, so she might as well have been outside in the dumpster. At least it was slightly warmer, though much smellier.

When the two of them finally walked out, it was not with any of her possessions in hand. She was pretty sure Sasuke had been wearing a coat when she had first seen him.

Her temper flared, did they think they could just _move in_?!

Hah. Not likely.

As soon as they had walked off down the hall, apparently too deeply absorbed in their argument to notice the small, pink haired girl lurking by the broken elevator, she crawled to her door.

Glancing to make sure that they were really gone, Sakura reached down into her shirt, pulling out a chain with a single, tarnished key on it.

Fumbling, Sakura shoved it in the lock, only to find that the door had been left open. Bastards.

Letting herself in, she secured the door behind her, smiling in satisfaction, casting careful looks behind her now and then to make sure her home was secure.

Things seemed to be fairly neat, there wasn't any food lying around and nothing appeared to have been taken. Sasuke's coat was on her unmade bed and Naruto's gloves were by his pillow on the floor. She took them, and contemplated burning them. But seeing as that was a spiteful, childish thing to do, (and she really needed a new coat) she decided against it. Before doing anything else, Sakura changed clothes. If she was going outside again, she wanted to be better prepared. She didn't know what to do about her foot; she obviously wasn't going to be able to get it into one of her boots. In the end she just painfully slid about five socks over it and called it good.

Naruto's gloves were fingerless, with leather palms and a steel plate running across the back of the hand. They were too big for her, but she put them on anyway. They made her feel intimidating.

Sasuke's coat, however, was another matter entirely. Naruto's gloves were fairly inconspicuous; lots of people had things like them. She doubted many people had black leather trench coats with an arsenal of small, pointy things in them.

This was even more obviously too big for her, but she put it on anyway. At least it was warm, even if it did smell like smoke and made her look like the grim reaper.

Sakura was just about to call her boss when the knob rattled. Her eyes widened. _Crap_, they were back! Naruto yelled at her from the other side of the door, "Sakura? You in there?"

She kept silent, biting her lip. She liked Naruto, and trusted him a lot more than she trusted Sasuke, (Naruto didn't carry a grenade around in his pocket, whilst Sasuke had about three in his coat) but she still didn't exactly consider them to be the best of buddies.

"Sakura, you should really open the door," Naruto whined, sounding a bit pained.

There wasn't really any point in keeping silent, he already knew it was her, so she yelled back, "Why?! So Sasuke can come in here and hit me with a chair in revenge or whatever?"

"Sasuke's not here."

"HAH. Right, as if I'd fall for that. Where is Sasuke then, at Starbucks getting coffee? Should I add that Starbucks closed down forty years ago because of corruption?"

"No, I mean Sasuke's climbing up the fire escape, and I think he's probably where you are by now."

"So?! I locked all the windows and the doors! He can't get in," Sakura said confidently.

"Some glass isn't going to stop him Sakura-chan. He's a raider, he's good at breaking in."

He was a raider? Well, at least it explained his violent tendencies and many weapons, but seriously. Could she be anymore unlucky? She snuck a glance at the fire escape through her small, grimy window. Still clear, Sasuke hadn't gotten there yet. Maybe he fell, she thought hopefully.

"Jesus Naruto, shy didn't you tell me you had a raider for a friend?!" She yelled agitatedly, trying to shove her book case over so it would block the window. The bookcase; which was 10 percent tape, 20 percent nails and 70 percent rotted, cheap wood refused to budge. She continued trying anyway.

"Look, I didn't think you two would ever meet, much less that you'd crack his head open. Sasuke's not that bad really, he just has some issues…"

"Like being a sociopath with homicidal tendencies?!" Sakura yelled. Her hands were shaking again, she noticed with some distaste, as she peered out the window. Still no Sasuke, thank god.

"Look, could you just open the door? Sasuke's really not that bad, he just has some temper problems—,"

"I don't _care_," she empathized, fishing in Sasuke's pockets for something destructive, "About how virtuous he is. I just want to live, okay? Why does he hate me so much anyway, all I did was knock him out. It was self defense!"

She thought Naruto might have sighed from the other side of the door, "Look, he's weird, okay? And really freaking bored. You fought back, so now he can't stop."

"That doesn't make any sense!" She wailed. Below her, the railing remained clear. That was odd, Naruto said he would've gotten there ages ago.

"I think he likes you, Sakura," Naruto said rather patiently, voice muffled by the door. If she could have seen him, she'd have known how evilly he was grinning.

"Stop trying to psyche me out!" Sakura's foot throbbed painfully when it tapped hard against the floor. She clamped her hands over her mouth to muffle her scream and doubled up, sick with pain.

"Did it work?" Naruto laughed on, oblivious. When she didn't reply, he rapped again on the door, "Sakura? Are you okay?" Naruto sounded worried. Sakura, who was curled up into a ball on the floor, was privately thinking that she had never been worse. She was dizzy from fear, pain and hunger, her foot seemed to be trying to gnaw itself off, she was having trouble breathing she was so frightened, and a homicidal teenager was going to kill her because he thought she was _interesting_.

Painfully, she focused on the ground in front of her. It was okay, she was going to be okay, she'd just open the door. Naruto seemed to kind of like her, maybe he'd save her. Collecting herself, she pried both of her hands away from her foot and braced them on either side of her forehead, which was resting on the floor.

Something nudged her gently in the side. Cold fear racing up her spine, she turned to see Sasuke, who was poking her hip with his foot. He was frowning, "You took my coat."

Naruto, hearing Sasuke's voice through the door, started banging on it. "Sasuke! Lemme in already! And don't hurt Sakura-chan, she already thinks you're weird, so you don't have to add to your image or whatever!"

Sakura's mouth was very dry. She was suddenly aware of how bad she must look, with her face all blotchy and her nose probably running. Then she remembered that the last time she had seen him, he had been chasing her down several flights of stairs, probably intent on throwing her down a landing or two.

She lunged backwards, catching her injured foot at an even more awkward angle. It made a nasty cracking noise, and she gave a raw gasp, fresh tears of agony coming to her eyes. Naruto was still banging on the door, though now he was yelling at one of her neighbors to 'mind their own business.'

Sasuke shot her an unreadable look, and let Naruto in.

The blond boy almost flew in, saw Sakura huddled and crying on the floor and yelled at Sasuke. "What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything."

"Sure, right." Naruto knelt down in front of Sakura. "Hey, what's up?"

She shook her head, still crying. Blood had started to soak through her socks, which was definitely a bad thing.

Dread and a horrible curiosity made her move forwards, peeling them off as carefully as she could, still sobbing messily. When her foot gasped out, wet and free, Naruto leaned away from her with an expression of pity and revulsion on his face.

Her foot was an enormous bruise, yellow green at the edges and purple blue near the center. The bottom seemed peppered with scabs, some now ripped open, her bone easily seen.

"Naruto, hold her down. I'm gonna put it back in place."

Sakura shook her head harder, and tried weakly to get away.

His hands were going for her foot. She slapped him across the face and scooted backwards, hands reaching for something, anything. Naruto grabbed her, muttering soothingly, and she writhed pitifully.

And then Sasuke's hand was on the pressure point in her neck, and for a second there were starbursts doing the tango at the backs of her eyes, and sound flipped inward till she was lulled to slumber by the own steady beating of her heart.

* * *

The world was very black. Sakura could distantly make out the feeling of her body, the pain in her foot, the feel of someone carrying her. A door slammed open.

_"Tsunade!" _

_"What th—oh. It's you."_

_"Tsunade, I need—"_

_"Get him out of here, Naruto."_

_"Wha—?"_

_"I can't have them probe him. If they trace him to here, things'll get bad for me. Get him out."_

_"But—"_

_"I'll go." This voice was closer, the one carrying her. She moved, shifted into another pair of arms._

_"Sasuke—" _

_"Just fix her Naruto. Something's wrong, she should've woken up by now."_

_"Why aren't you gone yet?"_

_"Tch, whatever."_

Silence.

_"Is she alright?" _

_"…What the hell did you do to her?"_

_"I didn't—Sasuke chased her down some stairs. She wasn't wearing any shoes, he told me she kicked her way through a door."_

_"Straight at it?"_

_"No…the hinges I think. They were really old I guess."_

_"Iron?"_

_"Yeah, probably. The stairs were too, really rusty and shit."_

_"Hmm. How'd she survive through the night?"_

_"I dunno, I guess she found somewhere close to the building to sleep. She couldn't have gone far on that."_

_"Alright, I think it's some sort of infection. She's almost awake right now, might be able to hear us, though she won't be able to make any sort of movement."_

_"How can you tell?"_

_"See her eyelids? The twitch a little, whenever you talk. She's got a fever. She's burning up—goes any higher and she's going to die."_

It might be nice, Sakura thought, if I could. Right now. Just sink into the blackness and not go back. It won't be hard—I can see it. I can see that door. All I have to do is open it.

It'd be nice.

_"Sakura,"_ someone was whispering to her.

Go away.

_"Sakura, can you hear me?"_

No. Go away. Go away and let me die.

_"C'mon Sakura, don't die. Don't die on me. That'd really suck."_

Why would you care? People die everyday, it's no big deal. I don't care anymore. I can't. First time stopped it. I couldn't cry when my parents died, you know that? I still haven't.

_"Please don't die."_

Would that really be so bad? Would that hurt you at all? I've known you for what—a day?

_"We've all gotta stick together, right? And Sasuke wasn't really going to hurt you, y'know."  
_  
Haha, right. Because you almost kill the people you like.

_"You're really smart and stuff."  
_  
And stuff. Well now she could die happy.

_"No one's ever saved me before. No one cared. No one gave me food, let me stay with them."  
_  
I didn't save you; I just did the moral and human thing. Don't exaggerate. And giving you food was mostly to distract you from stealing my stuff.

_"Sasuke likes you too, even though you probably don't believe it. Er, I think he does. In his own weird kind of way. He's never met anyone who'd stand up to him like that."_

Fabulous.

_"So…you shouldn't die. Because we need you to stick around and hit him with chairs. You can be like our new mom or something. But with a chair. Or something."_

How appealing.

_"Naruto, get lost. I'm gonna get the surgery started." _

_"Yeah…take care of her, okay?"_

_"Sure, sure. She'll be fine. She's a strong girl, now go find some food for her, she's malnourished. Try not to be obvious when you steal it."_

_"Right, I'll get Sasuke to do it."_

_"Good plan. Last time you stole something it was a couch and you ran down the street with it."_

_"Oh, shut up. I didn't think they would notice."_

"The world's not that bad yet, Naruto."

* * *

A fantastically beautiful blond woman leaned over her, shining a small flash light into her pupils. Sakura blinked, licking her lips. She thought she might be cross eyed, but couldn't be sure. Now that the woman was closer to her, Sakura thought she could pick out the tiny, almost invisible white scars that marked plastic surgery.

Her age was a mystery. Her hands were steady, her face flawless, but the surgery must have been to hide something, and the sadness in her eyes spoke of accumulated wisdom and hurt from years past.

"Can you say anything?" The woman asked. Her voice was brisk, toffee eyes narrowed as she inspected Sakura carefully.

Sakura tightened her lips, trying to summon some saliva into her mouth. "Where am I?" She managed to rasp a second later. She sounded absolutely awful, like a dying man.

The woman nodded approvingly, "Good girl, sit up now." She did so, concentrating on breathing and not falling over. Everything in her body felt pleasantly numb, like a blanket had been thrown over all her hurts. A cup was pushed into her hands, and the woman helped her to sip.

She drank slowly, relishing the sweetness.

The water was almost too sweet; its innocence made Sakura suspicious. "You drugged this," she accused, glowering at the woman.

The woman smirked, crossing her arms flippantly and leaning back. "You're right, I did. It's nighty-night for you, in a few minutes."

Sakura didn't doubt that, her eyelids were already heavy. "Where am I?" She asked again, trying to sound forceful even though her words slurred and made no sense even to her own ears.

"You're at my house, east side of the city, on the docks by the river front. Don't worry, none of the recruiters ever come here."

"Where are…?" Sakura wanted to say Sasuke and Naruto, but their names were hard to remember. She sagged back against the bed posts and blinked hard.

"The idiots? Naruto's probably wandering down by the pier, or the idiot's fishing. Sasuke disappeared a while ago, dunno when he'll be back." The woman shrugged, lighting herself a cigarette. "You need to go back to sleep now, we'll chat when you wake up. Your body's seriously dead right now, and if you don't rest some then I'm not going to be able to get your feet in the healer."

From the corner of her eye, Sakura could just glimpse the sullenly humming machine. It was incredibly damaging to the environment, was very rare, and required the patient to be in a near coma-like state for it to operate properly. The good part about it was that it could heal almost any type of injury in a very short amount of time.

"Hey, do you play poker?" The woman asked suddenly. Sakura nodded sleepily, and snuggled down into her bed again, tugging her covers tighter around her.

"Will they…be back?" She managed to ask.

"Naruto? Oh sure, he'll be back, stupid kid. Sasuke'll come too, though it might just be to get his coat back."

That's right; she was still wearing his coat. Sakura grinned a little, burying her nose in the collar. The smoky smell of it was nice, comforting even among all of this sterile equipment. "It's mine now," she proclaimed before sliding back into unconsciousness.

* * *

Sasuke didn't like Tsunade's work room very much.

He knew that the woman hated him being there; he was a marked man and could be easily traced via satellite and the barcode on his neck. He did have to go back eventually though, even if it was just for his coat. Wandering through the abandoned pier aimlessly, Sasuke kicked at an empty can viciously, brooding.

Things had been easier when it had just been drills and comrades and family and friends.

Sasuke pushed away the thoughts forcefully, focusing on walking a safe distance from the alleys as he looked around for Naruto.

It took him nearly half an hour to find him. The blond boy was sitting on a rock in the middle of the river, staring out at the other side of the forest with longing.

"Naruto!" He yelled, watching as the boy snapped around, coming away from his precarious diving position.

"Get over here, I'm hungry." Sasuke yelled, hoping that this lie would be enough to convince him. Thankfully, it was. Naruto jumped into the water with a splash and swam back to Sasuke with an awkward, probably self taught doggy-paddle.

Wading through the shallows, Naruto grinned at him, "You're so whiney."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and threw Naruto's shirt at him. "You better cover that up," he said, averting his eyes from the ugly black stamp on Naruto's belly.

"Oh, right."

The two of them set back along the docks, reaching the road quickly. "Is she awake yet?" Naruto asked hopefully.

Sasuke shrugged, rolling his shoulders and shoving his hands into black cargo-pants pockets. "I dunno, Tsunade won't let me in, remember?"

"Oh, right. Do you think she'll be okay?"

Sasuke wasn't really sure if he cared or not, but it seemed important to Naruto so he again shrugged and said, "She made it though the night in a shirt and shorts—I think she'll be fine."

Beside him, Naruto let out a sigh of relief. "Good…do you think there's any ramen around here?"

"There's some food down west," Sasuke replied automatically.

The two of them walked in silence before Naruto grinned evilly at Sasuke, "Hey…"

"What?" Sasuke snapped, already dreading what came next.

"Sakura's pretty cute, huh?" Naruto raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Why are you being stupider than normal?" He asked, knowing that this was a sensitive subject for Naruto.

"I'm not stupid!" Naruto yelled, predictably.

* * *

"I win."

"I liked you better when you were unconscious," Tsunade grumbled, shoving the poker chips towards the grinning Sakura. "Fine, you win next hand and your treatment's free."

"I loose next hand and…what?" Sakura asked suspiciously.

"You're paying double."

"Bring it."

* * *

"I think they're…getting along…" Naruto whispered apprehensively, his nose pressed to the dirty glass of the window.

"Mnnf," Sasuke agreed around his mouthful of French-fries.

"You'll get fat from eating those," Naruto sniffed sarcastically.

Sasuke threw one at him.

Naruto caught it in his mouth, laughing. Sasuke rolled his eyes, his lips quirking up a bit against his better judgment.

Abruptly turning serious, Naruto turned to Sasuke. "I need a favor…"

"This has to do with Sakura, doesn't it?" Sasuke sighed, setting aside his fast food and settling himself more comfortably on his tree branch.

"…Maybe."

"You fail at lying," Sasuke said flatly.

"I think she's illegal, Sasuke."

"So what? Are you saying we report her? We're not exactly legit either, if you'd recall." Sasuke said, bored as he fished through the paper bag for an escaped potato strip.

"No, I mean, I don't think she's eighteen."

"Yet again, another area in which we would be hypocritical." Sasuke snapped sarcastically, displeased that the fries were gone.

Naruto was silent, pensively munching on his clam strip. "Sasuke…" he began,  
"How old do you think she is? Seriously."

Sasuke sighed, "I guess she's probably under sixteen. She's pretty scrawny, at least.."

"So…fifteen?" Naruto guessed attentively.

Sasuke chewed on his lower lip, and gave Naruto a firm, decisive nod, "Yeah."

"How long do you think she's going to last Sasuke? She's going to get caught by someone soon, or she'll die from starvation."

"She'll be fine," Sasuke argued.

"Will she?"

Sasuke was silent, wondering. Most people couldn't keep a job for than a year, either because they were killed off or the company went bankrupt. In those cases, girls like Sakura would probably search around for a job for a while, not find one, and then end up sliding into the underworld for survival.

It was pretty nasty down there. There were three categories making up the underworld; drugs, prostitution and begging. Sakura wouldn't get to begging for a while, only after she got really screwed up by the other two categories.

No. That couldn't happen.

Even worse were the druggies, the pushers. She could do okay there, flourish for a bit. Until one of her Crystal-Meth buyers tore her head off for not giving them their fix.

"What is it?" he said, and Naruto understood.

"Good, so I was thinking she could hang out with us." Naruto tried to look as appealing as he could, but Sasuke was surprised at how little the idea upset him.

"And why would she want to do that?"

"That's where your talents come in…" Smiling charmingly, Naruto whispered into Sasuke's ear. When he was done, Sasuke sighed.

"This isn't going to win you any points…" Sasuke groaned.

"Get her stuff out of the building first!"

"I was talking more about you taking over her life." Sasuke elaborated, wondering, yet again, why he was still friends with such a moron.

Naruto grinned, "Nah, I already explained all of your emotional shit to her. She'll warm up to us in no time."

"Charming," Sasuke snapped sarcastically, and stalked moodily away from the laughing blond.

* * *

Someone was banging on the door. Cursing, (she actually had a good hand, for once!) Tsunade crossed the room and opened the door to let Naruto in. He grinned at her and bounced over to Sakura, practically throwing a bag of food at her. "Eat up, dude!"

Sakura, who was only too happy to eat something that wasn't ramen, obliged. Tsunade made an angry noise from by the door and whacked Naruto over the head.

"She's supposed to be eating healthy, idiot."

"Yeah, well, she looks happy, right?" It was true; Sakura was smiling around her deep-fried chicken strip. He crouched by the side of her bed, "So, are you feeling better?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'll be able to walk around normally in a bit, I think."

"Oh, good!" Naruto smile was unnaturally wide. Sakura began to suspect a plot.

"What? Did you steal something?" Naruto shook his head.

"Why don't…you turn on the T.V., Tsunade?" Tsunade scowled at him from her lab table, busily mixing ingredients. Sakura watched apprehensively as Naruto bounded over to the antique television and flicked it on. Her concern grew when he switched to channel four, dubbed 'the disaster channel' by many.

The screen quality was low, flickering from black-and-white to color sporadically. Sakura gasped, what had at first been a fizz of white dots switched to color—turning out to be a raging inferno.

Her apartment was on fire.

"No!" Sakura yelled, staring horrified as her windows blew out, long tendrils of flame spewing into the sky. The small reporter in the left hand corner of the screen was solemnly proclaiming that the police suspected an arsonist.

Sakura started pinching herself at this point. There was a large banner proclaiming, 'If you want to live, get out of the building' hanging from the building across from hers.

If the police only _suspected_ an arsonist, than they really _were_ screwed.

Turning furiously towards Naruto, she opened her mouth to scream at him, but was interrupted by the door slamming open and a disgruntled Sasuke stomping in. He was carrying several sacks that were full of what appeared to be her stuff. Something in her chest loosened, at least she wouldn't have to _completely_ start over.

"Let's go," Sasuke ordered, glancing over at Sakura before glaring at Naruto.

At least now she knew why his coat smelled like smoke.

* * *

Sakura liked to think that she was a calm, rational person. From an outsider's perspective, what they had done wasn't really that bad. Sure, they had destroyed her home, but it wasn't like she had lost everything. She hadn't been particularly attached to the apartment, or her neighbors.

But still, they had _no right_.

"Yeah, so, Sasuke and I were thinking—" Naruto began enthusiastically.

"You were thinking," Sasuke interrupted. He was watching Sakura carefully, probably waiting for her to throw a knife at him or something.

"Fine, fine. So, I was thinking that you could come live with us!" Naruto grinned widely, missing Tsunade's outraged expression.

Sakura did not reply, feeling too angry to speak. Her fingers ached from the tension she was putting them through. Every muscle in her body was tensed, ready for a fight. One of her molars was grinding worryingly, aching from how tightly she had gritted her jaw. She stared hard at her lap, trying to calm herself down.

How _dare_ they?!

It was probably a good thing that she couldn't move the lower half of her body, otherwise violence would have reigned supreme.

"Naruto!" Tsunade steamed, wrathful on Sakura's behalf, "You do not destroy the material possessions of a person in order to get them to like you!" She smacked him hard over the back of his head. It seemed to be something of a hobby for her.

Naruto yelped, covering his head with his arms protectively, "Hey, that hurt!"

"Good," Sakura spoke at last, her head snapped upwards, her tiny human fangs bared in fury. "I hope it did."

"…Sakura?" Naruto's eyes were large and confused. He blinked, tilting his head to the side.

She _hissed._

Sasuke, who had been around women more than Naruto knew that they should probably be running right now. He strategically maneuvered himself behind Tsunade's lab table and braced himself.

"You idiot!" Sakura screamed—her eyes wild, small hands clenched together tightly. "Why the hell did you burn my house down?!"

As the sound waves hit Naruto, he appeared to shrink in size, contracting and hiding within his own skin. "But—but, Sakura …"

"No, you are not allowed to talk," Sakura seethed. Her hands had unclenched, reaching instead for her soft drink. Clutching the Styrofoam cup tightly for a second, the beamed it at Naruto, hitting him full in the face and coating him in carbonated, highly sugared water. "You jerk!"

Naruto yelped, leaping backwards and shaking his head like a dog. His blond hair had fallen out of its' gravity defying style and pasting itself to his head. "But—"

"I—_Why_?! Why did you do that?!" Sakura's pupils were dilated, giving her an alien, frightening look.

"He wanted to make sure you didn't die," Sasuke said calmly. He regretted speaking however, when she turned towards him.

"You…" she seethed, "You probably liked burning it down, _didn't_ you?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "What are you talking about?"

"Hey, guys—" Naruto tried to interrupt.

"You don't like me—you probably wanted to make sure that I really _would_ freeze to death!"

"Don't be stupid," Sasuke snapped, glaring back at her. Jeez, and just when he was starting to consider her moderately intelligent, too.

"Oh, _I'm_ stupid—"

"I told him to do it," Naruto interrupted, his voice tiny.

She turned back to him, looking almost regretful, "But—"

"I told you, Sasuke kind of likes you—"

"I do not," Sasuke frowned. Naruto ignored him, pushing onwards.

"—so he wasn't going to burn your home down for no reason. Would he have gotten all your stuff if he had?"

"I—no…"

There was a loud crunching noise, causing all three teenagers to look over at Tsunade. The woman was leaning back against a wall, munching on potato chips. She smiled encouragingly at the three of them.

"Don't mind me! Please, continue!"

* * *

"Hey, I want my coat back," Sasuke frowned suddenly. He was carrying three bags of Sakura's stuff, but it had suddenly occurred to him that he was _cold_. Next to him, Naruto made frantic slashing gestures—_do not provoke her_.

Sakura sent him a chilly glare, "It's mine."

The three of them were on slightly rocky ground. Sakura was still mad at them for burning down her apartment, as well as making her practically lose her foot. Naruto was miffed because Sakura wasn't happy to live with them and annoyed at Sasuke for being a jerk. Sasuke was just in a bad mood and annoyed with the world, especially considering that he felt he didn't really deserve all this abuse.

After leaving Tsunade's, Sakura had reluctantly agreed to live with them—_temporarily_. They were now transporting her things to their place. A twinge of uneasiness pricked at Sakura, they were entering a neighborhood that she knew to be even worse than hers.

"No, it's not. Give it back."

"You burned my coat down, I get to keep this one," Sakura snapped viciously, feeling glorious and powerful for this small torture. Naruto sighed, why couldn't people just act their own age?

"I didn't burn it; it's in one of these stupid bags." Sasuke shook one of his own bags to empathize.

"Yeah, right," she sneered, clinging to her own bags harshly.

"I did, it's the one with the candy stash in the front pocket."

"You went through my stuff?!" Sakura yelled, throwing a bag at his head, "Bastard!"

Nevertheless, she edged slightly closer to him and Naruto, glancing nervously at the dirty windows and the hungry eyes peering out through them.

* * *

"What the hell is this?" Sakura snapped aggressively, peering into the room.

"Well, intelligent people would say it's a kitchen—judging by the microwave and refrigerator." Sasuke commented sarcastically.

Naruto sent him a curious look; he was much more talkative then usual.

"It looks like a pile of crap," Sakura commented calmly, wading through the mess, dropping her bags on the table and looking around. "I'm not sleeping in here, am I?"

There was an awkward silence, the two boys apparently having not thought out this part very well. Sakura rolled her eyes.

Their living space was larger than hers, though not by much. Kitchen, Living room, bathroom and two bedrooms. Sakura's eyes darted towards the living room.

"I refuse to sleep on the couch. I need my own room if I'm going to live with you." She said calmly, hands finding their way to her hips.

Naruto mumbled something under his breath before he grinned cheerfully and pointed at Sasuke. "You can take his room!"

Sakura hit Naruto, barely batting an eyelash. "It's _my_ home."

Annoyed, Sakura dragged her things into Naruto's room and poked her head into his closet. It was completely empty, and unlike the rest of apartment, was actually fairly large in proportion. She shoved her way in and shut the door behind her, yelling, "I'm going to live in here!"

The two of them listened to the sound of the door shutting, before following her into Naruto's room and dropping her things on the floor in front of the closet. Naruto tapped on the door, "Hey, Sakura—"

"Go away!" Sakura yelled from behind her door, sounding murderous. The two males hastily retreated into the kitchen.

Sasuke scowled darkly at Naruto, "I hope you're happy," he snapped, before he shouldered his way past the blond and stormed outside, intent on prowling the streets.

Naruto waited until he was sure the other boy was gone before he allowed his grin to re-emerge. Whatever Sasuke said, he had gotten Sakura.

His victory dance was short and graceless.

_Score one for team Naruto._

* * *

Sasuke glared at the offensive pavement, stomping down on it in vicious satisfaction. Stupid asphalt. Stupid Naruto. Stupid Sakura.

Grumbling, he continued on his trek—passing by the rusted over train tracks and making his way back the harbor.

Sasuke was looking for something to burn.

Idly, he flicked the lighter through his hands, playing it back and forth between the two. The flame flickered once, singing one of his fingers. Cursing, he shoved the fried appendage in his mouth and started glaring at the ground again.

It was official; life _sucked_.

The lighter was back out after a second. He watched the slender, flirting flame beam itself up into the air—felt the heat when he brought it up to his face. _So pretty…_

There. A large, half rotted plank of wood. Relatively far from anything else flammable, should be safe…ish.

Painstakingly, torn newspapers and splinters of doors were gathered, piled, perfected. Lighter pulled out, papers lit, and Sasuke hopping backwards to watch the swelling inferno.

It roared, it consumed, and it destroyed. Blazing higher and higher, heat waves rolling off and soaking into him.

He smiled, so caught up in his creation that he didn't notice the first plane.

The siren was loud. The kind of loud that splits eardrums and gives you a heart attack from fright.

The fire had almost died when this phenomenal sound wave hit Sasuke. He had been staring at the smoldering coals, watching as they spat out sparks that jigged through the air.

When the alarm came, he jolted forwards, almost stepped in the fire and reached instinctively for the knife in his boot. Then he remembered what the sirens were for.

Bombs.

Meaning that in a couple of minutes, this street was going to be demolished.

He didn't really have to worry, there was a shelter not too far from here, he could make it just fine. Hurriedly kicking some dirt over the fire, he started running towards the shelter before he stopped dead in his tracks.

Sakura and Naruto were still back at the apartment. The rickety, decades old structure which could probably be blown apart by some strong winds.

And they didn't have an alarm in that district. One of them was always awake during the night, watching for raiders and worse. Naruto and Sakura would be sleeping right now, not watching the windows, not peering through the clouds.

Sasuke turned, and ran.

* * *

The door slammed open, ricocheting outwards and banging hard against the wall. Instantly awake, Naruto shot upwards—his fingers groping wildly through the darkness for the light switch.

"Naruto—Sakura, get up!" Sasuke was panting in his doorway, hair disheveled and eyes wild. The closet door creaked open and Sakura poked her head out, looking sleepy and confused.

"What's going on—?" She yawned, fisting one of her hands into her eyes and rubbing tiredly. Sasuke grabbed her roughly by the elbow and dragged her sharply forwards. She yelped, falling forwards and landing ungracefully at his feet. She hissed, mutinous.

"He—"

"We have to go," Sasuke snapped, dragging her out of the room behind him. Naruto ran after him, grabbing their emergency bag from the kitchen as they went. Sasuke hadn't waited for him, hadn't stopped to let Sakura put her shoes on. "Come _on_," He yelled harshly.

Naruto followed, a ramen packet crammed into his pocket and all the cash they had in the other. Frightened, he watched Sasuke. The other boy looked frantic, desperate. He moved jerkily, quickly. Running through the rooms and through the hall, down the stairs and onto the street.

Sasuke relaxed a bit then, sprinting full forward. His eyes were narrowed, dragging Sakura along behind him. Naruto frowned; Sasuke usually wouldn't even touch people unless—

Somewhere far off, he thought he could hear the wail of a siren. Blood freezing, he shot forward, grabbing his two friends by the hand and pulling them forward even faster. Sakura was wincing—she didn't have any shoes, and her foot wasn't supposed to be doing anything this strenuous. Sasuke was panting, he had run here and was worn out. Naruto pulled, come on…_come on_…

Above them, the roar of an engine could be heard.

They ran faster.

Miles behind them, something exploded. A second later the shockwave rolled past them, shaking the ground and blasting at them with hot air. Sasuke slipped, fell. Naruto jerked him halfway upright and didn't notice when Sasuke skimmed his knee from it, grinding away the skin. Thick, dark drops of blood welled up and snaked their way down his leg.

The nearest shelter was almost a mile away.

Closer now, another bomb had dropped. There was another explosion; a sink flying through the air three blocks down from them.

Around them, the streets were deserted but for a select few individuals. The old and the sick, they huddled in the grimy filth of the buildings. Their yellow, sickly faces watched the runners, hoping they would fall.

A mob had grown a little ways in front of them. A laughing young man was at the center, pointing upwards at the sky, and laughing. "We're going to die!" He yelled gleefully, "We're going to die! Oh babe, this is it!"

Naruto shivered, his feet slapping past him. His hands tightened around Sasuke's and Sakura's, pulling them forward_. Hurry._

_Half a mile to go._

It was hard to breath, they weren't really sprinting any longer. Sasuke was the runner, but he had needed to make a round trip. Desperately, they forced their way onwards. Lungs burning, eyes stinging, legs aching.

Another bomb fell. Close, _way too close_. Debris flew everywhere and this time it was Naruto who fell, dragging the other two down with him. He hit the ground hard, coughing. Sakura whimpered, sobbed a little and was the first to push herself up.

Despite the danger they were in, despite the fact that it was hard to breath and he thought he might've pulled a muscle, his heart still swelled because she didn't leave without them. She almost did, started to run—but stopped, and yanked the two upwards, leading them in the retreat.

The pavement was hot, people were screaming—loud and high and—oh God, there's a baby in the street, the mother lying facedown not five feet away.

Naruto didn't think she could still be alive, considering the metal pole lodged in her spine. Next to the dead woman, the baby screamed louder.

Sakura had stopped.

He turns back, reaching for her. Beside him Sasuke yelled, "Come on!"

Naruto watched, and thought. There was some blood caked on the soles of his sneakers—it wasn't his.

"What's your problem?" Sasuke sounded desperate, frantic. He pushed Naruto ahead and reached for her—"Come _on_!" For a second she wavered, reaching up one arm to grab his hand…

And then, abruptly changing her mind, she turned and bolted towards the screaming toddler. "No!" Naruto yelled, and started to chase her—because…because…

Because there was a building that was going to fall on her if she picked up that baby.

Desperation made him fast, propelled him forward to grab her wrist.

"LET ME G—" she wrenched forward, clawing at the air, trying to reach the child. From behind them, Sasuke was silent, frozen. His eyes were wide as he stared at the falling building, at Sakura at—

The mother was moving. Lifting her head, reaching for her child. She cradled her baby to her breast and looked up, locking eyes with them; the bystanders. Slowly, her eyes drifted shut.

The building fell.

Sakura screamed, throwing herself forward, crying and kicking at the rubble, saying "Mom! Mom!"

Naruto watched. Not understanding, not—it had been so _personal_ to Sakura. He didn't get why was she freaking out; she had seen all those other people die and barely blinked—

While Naruto watched, Sasuke didn't. He marched up to her, yelling, "Stop it! What's wrong with—just stop it, let's go!"

"I—I—" She stammered, large eyes wide and hurt and crying. "I—I was supposed to die! I was supposed to be there with them! I—"

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled, teeth bared at her. He grabbed her arm and then he reached for Naruto, grabbing him too, and started to run again. Naruto had to work to keep up—he'd forgotten how fast Sasuke can run when he really freaked out.

They ran and they ran, passing destruction and death and Sakura was still crying and—

There was the shelter.

Sasuke kicked the door hard, smashing the cheap metal in. The door itself wasn't particularly strong, since it lead only to a pit.

Naruto went first, lowering himself in carefully, and dropping the last five feet. Behind him, Sakura did the same. Sasuke jumps—landing cat-like on the ground. Together, they ran to huddle by the opposite wall.

The explosions continued. Naruto can't remember ever hearing so many people scream. He pressed his hand to his head, blocking out his ears and hummed.

Sasuke sat on his other side, tight lipped and knife out. His knuckles were white, eyes burning. Sakura was quiet, staring blankly out at the small patch of light that marked the door. She was still silently crying.

"Hey, Sakura? Is this your first raid?" He tried to sound light, conversational. His voice shook a little when a woman's scream interrupted him.

Slowly, she shook her head, no.

"Is this the first time you've been out in one?"

Careful nod. Her eyes were fixed on something slightly over his shoulder.

Suddenly, Naruto felt very sick. "What—what happened to your parents?"

She looked away, staring at the door. Naruto took the opportunity to look over at Sasuke. He twitched—creepy red eyes shone back at him.

"Sasuke—" he started to warn him, to tell the dork to turn it off.

"I know," Sasuke said, and kept staring around the empty pit.

"They died. They died in the…in the kitchen. At the table. They—they were waiting for me to come home."

Sakura paused, biting her lip hard. "I…was at the library."

On the other side of him, Sasuke was silent. Naruto thought he might have stopped breathing.

"There was—we had a crawl space under our house. You know, incase the bombs hit."

She stopped. Hesitantly, Naruto reached out and placed a careful hand on her shoulder. "I'm…sorry."

She laughed a little, "It's okay. They were going to make me be a lawyer anyway; they said another doctor in the family would've been a bad idea." Her grin was brittle and fake. It tore at his heart in a way that he couldn't understand.

"You survived," Sasuke said it firmly, decisively. Naruto looked over at him with a frown, wondering what the other boy meant.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. Impulsively, she pulled Sasuke's coat around her more tightly. (She might've abandoned her shoes, but the coat had been easy to get on.)

"I survived."

* * *

Sasuke frowned at the grey sky. He and the others had been making their way back to their apartment, when he noticed how wrong something was.

Ash fell from the skies in wispy flakes. They landed wetly in Sakura's hair, making her look like an old woman. Sasuke's frown deepened as he stared around at the smoldering wreckage of the city.

"Hey," he said, turning to look at Sakura and Naruto, "Did either of you see anyone shooting down the planes?"

Naruto blinked at him, and smiled ironically, "Does anyone even have the stuff to do that? We were too busy running away Sasuke; I don't think either of us was looking around for crap like that."

Sakura, who had been disturbingly quiet, shook her head quickly.

Sasuke ground his molars together, dark eyes searching through the clouds. "So where'd the ash come from?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I don't know—maybe the _fires_?"

But Sakura had paused, turning to look with him. Slowly, her brow furrowed, "He's right," she murmured, "It's falling out of the sky…is there a volcano around here or something?"

"No," Sasuke replied. He felt uneasy, like someone was watching him.

Silently, the three of them made their way back to the ruins of the apartment, each caught up in their own thoughts.

The ash continued to fall.

* * *

The apartment was, of course, completely destroyed. They didn't stay long, just enough for Naruto to pull an old man out from under the ruble, and then they continued along their way.

After the three of them had wandered aimlessly for several hours in an attempt to get over their shell-shocked state, Naruto started talking again.

"Hey, should we go back to Tsunade? It's not like we have anywhere else to go—"

"No," Sakura said, her face suddenly intense. "We can't go there."

"But, why—"

"She won't let _him_ in," Sakura said, jerking her head back to Sasuke. Naruto brooded on this for a minute—and then grinned. Impulsively, he leered at Sakura, who stepped away from him, her eyes suspicious and wary.

"Aw, I didn't know you cared!" He laughed, almost genuine.

"I don't!" She protested, too strongly to really mean it. Naruto cackled and swung her down into a headlock. He ruffled her hair, ignoring her increasingly prolific protests.

"Sasuke! Sakura cares about—"

"I do not!" Sakura hollered, stamping down on his foot brutally. He yelped, releasing her and hopped away frantically. Sakura chased him, ranting about how he had _no_ tact and how this situation was _completely_ inappropriate.

Sasuke snorted, messaging his temples.

_Morons._

* * *

"Hinata!" Ino whispered. Gently, she shook the other girl's shoulder. Hinata moaned and rolled away from her, burying her face in one of her arms with a muffled protest. Ino hissed like an angry cat, and shook the slumbering girl more forcefully.

Hinata woke up, her eyes wide and frightened. She relaxed quickly after Ino quickly whispered, "It's me—Ino."

"Oh," Hinata sighed. One of her hands reached outwards, tangling her fingers with Ino's.

Ino flinched. She hated it when people held her hand. Hinata, on the other hand, craved the simple affection, so just this once, she let it pass.

"We have to go Hinata," Ino whispered, tugging the other's arm gently. "We have to leave."

Hinata's pale, eerie eyes widened in the darkness, "Go? Go where?"

"I don't know," Ino admitted. Her eyes burned a little from old mascara and something else. "But I have to leave, and I can't abandon you. You're my friend Hinata, and we deserve better than this." Ino's voice grew harder as she spoke, a steely glint appearing in her eyes.

Hinata was quiet. Slowly, she levered herself upwards into a crouch so that she was mostly eye-level with the long-limbed blonde.

"I—I don't know Ino-chan…it seems so risky." Hinata mumbled. Her dark hair was tousled, framing her face messily. Bracing herself, Ino pushed a few of the dark strands behind her friend's ear. Hinata's eyes glowed, leaning into the chaste touch.

"…Please, Hinata." Ino mumbled. "I can't—I can't stay."

Mentally, Hinata agreed. But at least, so long as she remained here, she would have a place to sleep and food to eat. Hinata didn't like change, didn't like the uncertainty of the future. It was what had landed her here in the first place. "Why now? Why so sudden?"

Ino bit her lip, staring at her knees. "I—" taking a deep breath, she leaned forward and whispered her darkest secret into Hinata's ear.

Hinata's lips parted in distress, her eyes trained on the moonlit curve of Ino's shoulder. "Oh, Ino…"

"I know," Ino said, her eyes not looking at Hinata's face, ashamed.

Timidly, Hinata wrapped herself around Ino's tense figure in a partial hug. "Why don't you…just…get rid of it?" She spoke almost silently, hating herself for asking such a forbidden question.

"Because I—I don't want to. I want to keep this. It's mine." Ino's long bangs drifted forward, sticking to her smudged lip-gloss.

"I—okay. I understand." Because Hinata did, she did understand what it was like to want to hold someone.

And if Ino stayed here, what she said was true—she would not be allowed to keep this.

"Let's go," Hinata said, standing up and moving fluidly through the clutter of her small room. Haphazardly, she threw her things into a beaten shoulder bag, shoved some money into her pockets, and turned back to face Ino. "I'm ready."

Ino nodded sharply, and strode over to the window. Throwing it open, she clambered out, carefully lowered herself down, dangled for a moment, and then dropped the remaining ten feet to the ground.

She landed inelegantly, almost falling. Straightening hurriedly, she caught Hinata's bag and waited patiently for the other girl to follow her.

Nervously, Hinata lowered herself downwards, hanging from her fingertips as Ino had. Carefully breathing in-and-out, she pushed herself off from the wall—and fell.

The grass was cool under her feet—sprinkled with pre-morning dew. She slipped on it as she fell, crashing into Ino. The taller blonde swore softly, hurriedly looping an arm around Hinata's waist and dragging her upright. "Th-Thanks," Hinata mumbled. Her cheeks were flushed from exhilaration. Quickly, she pulled on her shoes.

The two figures walked off into the dark. One curvy and petite, the other tall and slim—both joined by past and future.

"We'll be okay," Hinata said, glancing quickly at Ino, "We'll be okay."

"We could," Sakura suggested, "Just sleep under a bridge or something. But first I want to get back into my neighborhood—I do have a job after all."

"What—oh yeah…" Naruto's expression became dreamy, "At the ramen joint…"

Sakura sighed, inwardly moaning, and said, "Yes. The ramen joint—joy of my heart."

Naruto drooled slightly. Sasuke hit him over the back of his head.

It took them an hour to walk back to where Sakura lived, and by that time, the sun had almost completely set. Sasuke twitched, peering suspiciously into the shadowed alleyways. Naruto glanced over his shoulder for what had to the twentieth time. Ahead of them, Sakura marched confidently. She _knew_ these streets, and so long as she wasn't stupid, she knew she'd be okay.

Calmly, she approached the nearest garbage-can-fire-group. Naruto watched her go, making panicked little gestures and clearly indicating that he did not want her to talk with the evil hobos. Sakura ignored him and tapped one of the homeless men on their shoulders, "Hey."

He grunted to show that he had heard her. Sakura tried to look both tough and friendly, "Do you mind if my friends and I hang out here for the night?"

The bum barely even looked at her, staring suspiciously at Sasuke and Naruto instead. Immediately, the blond boy pasted his trademark smile on in an attempt to win him over.

"Is the idiot," the hobo's voice was low and gravely, "Going to accidentally set us on fire while we sleep?"

Sakura grinned. Naruto's jaw dropped in outrage. Sasuke muttered something suspiciously like, 'probably,' to himself.

"Don't give him any matches, and he won't." Sakura muttered as she plopped down by the hobo's side. She sighed happily, bringing her hands closer to the fire. Naruto joined her after a minute, mumbling obscenities under his breath. Sasuke rolled his eyes, flicking his lighter idly.

"Hey," the hobo poked Sakura's shoulder and pointed at Sasuke, "Do you vouch for _him_?!"

"Absolutely not," Sakura said darkly. She glared frigidly at Sasuke, "He burned my house down."

The hobo contemplated this. Sasuke glowered and hid his lighter back in his pocket. "_She_," he said, "Stole my coat."

"Ah," the hobo nodded understandingly and moved aside so Sasuke could sit. "Yes, women do tend to do that."

* * *

"Hey!" Sakura banged the doors to the restaurant open and marched in. It was odd, she had kind of missed this little hell hole.

"Sakura?! Where've you been—you missed almost two days of work!" The elderly owner popped his head out from behind the grill and frowned at her.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry about that. I broke my foot and an idiot burned down my house and then I got caught in that air raid," Sakura waved her hand dismissively—as if this sort of thing was just a regular occurrence in her life.

"…And you're still alive?!" The old man groaned. Sakura glowered.

"Thanks so much."

"Is it weird that since the cook just quit, I'll be promoting you instead of firing you?" He mused, and Sakura fought down a smile.

* * *

Naruto showed up to walk her back from work, though she wasn't sure if such an occurrence was good or bad. On the plus side, no one bothered her. On the other hand, the hobos seemed to have taught Naruto several lewd drinking songs. She sighed, "So, did you and Sasuke find a place for us to sleep?"

"Uh, I think Sasuke's doing that right now!"

"Oh, goodie," Sakura groaned.

"What?"

"Can you see Sasuke house-shopping?"

"Er…" Naruto blinked, "Not…really…"

"Exactly. That jerk is so bad at human relations he's probably half robot." Sakura snapped contemptuously. Naruto peered down at her, eyes scrunched together suspiciously. Sakura noticed, and twitched minutely.

"What?"

"Sasuke's annoying huh?"

"Yes," Sakura ground out pointedly, and shoved him into a wall before he could say anything else.

"We're living here?" Sakura's nose wrinkled disdainfully as she gazed around the mildew infested room.

"Actually, I am. You two can sleep outside—in the rain." Sasuke snapped at her, throwing himself down onto his sleeping bag and turning his back to them. Sakura hissed at him. She had a sneaky suspicion that there was a reason why her sleeping bag was the only one riddled with holes, seeing as Sasuke had been the one to steal them.

Grumbling, she crawled into her own and snuggled in.

"Hey, Sakura? How was work?" Naruto's voice broke through the silence, overly loud, and dragging her back from the tantalizing promise of slumber.

"Great, I got promoted. I make the ramen now."

Suddenly alarmed, Sasuke turned back to see Naruto, just in time to witness every muscle in the boy's body tense.

"Sakura…"

"What?" Sakura muttered, wary.

"Will you marry me?" Naruto sincerity-edged voice was over-ruled by the obvious hero-worship.

Sasuke groaned, and hit him with his pillow.

* * *

He had almost managed to go back to sleep when the window slid open. His training kicked in, and Sasuke tensed, listening intently. There was a soft sigh, and then the gentle thud of someone's feet touching down on the carpet.

He sprang forward. Shoving a forearm hard against the other persons neck he slammed them into a wall, body pining down the other's arms he—

The lights clicked on. Naruto and Sakura were at his back, faces alert and wary. So he hadn't been the only one standing guard…

It was a girl—a young woman. She was panting, her eyes large, blue, framed with too much make-up—"Don't come in, Hinata!" She yelled, twisting herself to look at the window, "Get out of here!"

Sasuke snarled, pushing down harder, "You bi—"

"Ino?!" Sakura interrupted, laying a hand on his arm. She looked shocked, her hair falling out of its ponytail, shirt slipping down over her shoulder.

Ino gasped, "Sakura?!"

"Ino—what are you doing here? Why are—Sasuke. Sasuke let her go," Sakura ordered suddenly, slipping into authoritative mode. Sasuke shot her an irritated glare, but backed off. Ino hissed softly, rubbing at the chafed skin on her throat.

Naruto stuck his head through the window, blue eyes scanning the dark alley and snagging on the small figure sprinting down it. Silently, he vaulted himself out and dropped down onto the dumpster. Leaping off, he ran after her.

For a second, nobody moved. Then Sakura crossed the room, sliding the window roughly shut. She cursed several times when the splintered wood caught. Upon finishing, she turned back to her companion.

"Ino…why are you still alive?" Sakura whispered.

Ino bit her lip, glancing sullenly at Sasuke. "Let's take a walk," she said, and dragged the bewildered Sakura outside.

Sasuke stood, alone, in the middle of the room. Mechanically, he locked the door behind them, and switched off the lights.

The rain drummed comfortingly against the windows.

"Maybe," Sasuke mumbled, pressing his nose flat to the glass, "One of them will be hit by lightening. If Santa decides I was a good boy, that is."

* * *

"I thought you died." Sakura said quietly, staring hard at Ino. "You moved to west side, didn't you? The entire place exploded about the same time your letters stopped coming."

The two of them were sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against an abandoned library wall. Ino grinned a little, and started raggedly pulling up grass, dumping the green stems into fluffy piles.

"Yeah, the whole place went down. I was hospitalized for over a month—god, _that_ was boring." Ino smiled ironically, and scooted discreetly away from Sakura so that their shoulders weren't touching anymore.

Sakura's breath hitched, her face looking hurt. Ino pretended not to notice, occupying herself with straightening her hair.

"What then?" Sakura asked after a pause, and tucked her chin between her knees.

"The hospital blew up," Ino sarcastically laughed, and smashed her small pile of grass ruthlessly. "I sure know how to pick 'em."

"But—why aren't you dead?" Sakura whispered, wondering how many times she was going to ask that question.

"A nurse—his name was Haku—he saved me. Threw himself over me at the last second. He…he was so sad, Sakura. One of his patients had died earlier that day—Zabuza or something like that. I think—"

"Wait," Sakura interrupted, "_The_ Zabuza? The terrorist?"

"Tried to assassinate one of our generals so he could command the regiment? Yeah, that's him," Ino nodded. "He was across the hall from me."

"Oh, God…" Sakura moaned.

"He looked really depressed and—I think he might've…died on purpose." Ino shuddered a little bit, and sunk her fingernails into the soft, wet Earth. "He didn't have to save me—we barely knew each other and—he could've just pulled me out of the way, he didn't have to—" Ino fell silent, remembering.

Sakura looked awkwardly over at her friend. She didn't know if she should hug her, or if that would just make things worse.

* * *

"_You_ are damn ugly. Honestly. Whatever abomination responsible for your creation should be ashamed of themselves. Just looking at you offends me on a deep level. If you do not remove yourself from my presence, I shall be forced to burn you to the ground." The sarcastically pompous voice announced to the otherwise silent room.

The beaten over, mustard yellow chair made the mistake of not growing legs and running for its life.

Sasuke flicked the lighter open, "Excellent…"

* * *

"You know," Naruto wheezed, running in a dogged, zigzag line, "Even if I was going to smack you around, I'm too tired to do that right now."

The girl, who was moving forward at a pathetically slow pace, flapped one of her hands at him and started scaling the chain link fence blocking her escape. Naruto stared in barely concealed horror—the very thought of climbing making his skin crawl.

But wait—he didn't have to be stupid about this; he could make _her_ come to _him_.

"I'll buy you ramen!" Naruto shrieked, hoping that she wouldn't mind that his definition of 'buy' was suspiciously close to 'steal.'

Somehow, she was able to turn down his offer. Hinata flopped over the fence, sprawling painfully on the ground and making no move to get up. Her lungs were on fire—it was painful just to breath. Her fingers dove into her pocket, wrenching out her inhaler and slamming it to her mouth.

Naruto clanged against the fence, breathing hard as he watched her. "You have asthma?"

Hinata jerked her head a little, still clinging to her inhaler like a drowning woman. Naruto laughed shakily, "Damn, well now I'm the bad guy. Okay," Naruto grumbled, and backed into the wall, sliding down it gratefully. "You cool with this? No more running?"

Hinata tucked her knees into her chest defensively and shook her head. She pocketed her inhaler, coughed harshly into a cupped palm, and smeared red into her pants when she wiped her hand clean.

"Er—you okay?" Naruto asked uneasily, and reflexively checked the street for army men. No way could he get away from them right now.

"Please go away," Hinata said softly, peering through the chain-linked-metal. "Leave me alone."

"I'm not giving up," Naruto retorted stubbornly, "And you should really go to a doctor or something."

He laughed at his own joke, but stopped at the 'are-you-insane?' look Hinata was giving him.

* * *

"So…what happened after the hospital?" Sakura pressed, fiddling with the ends of her hair.

"And my life was thoroughly screwed over again?" Ino asked wryly, turning her head to look Sakura fully in the face, "What do you think I did Sakura?" It hurt to say that. It hurt to let Sakura down, to tell her that she didn't grow up to be a pop star.

"…Oh," Sakura said, falsely casual. "I—oh."

"What, you're _sorry_? Don't be. It was my fault—I was always the stupid one after all, right?" Ino said to her legs, face still hidden from Sakura.

"That's not true—" Sakura snapped angrily, only to be cut off again by Ino.

"Yeah, it is Sakura. _You're_ not selling yourself off, are you? _I_ was the one who did—God, I'm so _stupid_—I thought I could just pay off my debts and the adios the whole damn thing." Ino's shoulders were shaking, but Sakura still didn't know if she was allowed to touch her best friend.

"Look, Ino—you did what you had to, alright?" She tried valiantly to smooth things over, and sat forcefully on her hands. "It's not like—you were just trying to _survive_—"

"I know," Ino said quietly, and curled in on herself even further, if that was possible. "I know."

They sat in silence for a second, the wet air flattening their hair. Rain seeped through Sakura's sneakers, chilling her toes unpleasantly. Eventually, Ino uncurled, propping her chin on her hands to watch the steady drip of water.

"You're free now," Sakura said softly, tentatively reaching over to grab Ino's hand. "You left them—they can't do anything to you." Ino almost shrank away from her hand—but stopped, because this was _Sakura_, who used to braid her hair and eat cookie dough with her on hazy summers and biting winters.

Ino took a deep breath, "Not exactly."

Sakura waited—the beginnings of ideas forming in her mind.

"Sakura…do you still want to be a doctor?" Ino asked, face serious. Sakura nodded after a minute, eyes firm.

"Good—I need a favor. You don't have to deal with it right now—but you will in eight months." Ino looked away, her voice forcefully light. Sakura's hand squeezed her own—almost painfully tight.

"You sure about this? It's won't be easy Ino—having a baby never is." Sakura asked her friend as they walked back to the apartment together.

"I know." Ino said calmly, "I don't care."

Sakura sighed, and shoved some hair behind her ears, "I dunno if I can do it right—most doctors have months of training, and schooling, and—"

"You'll do fine," Ino said stiffly, "You have a long time to get ready."

Sakura groaned, rolling her shoulders back. She pulled the coat more tightly around herself, "What are you going to do when…when it's here?"

"I haven't thought about it." Ino admitted, a pang of worry splashing through her. Sakura rolled her eyes. "I—I guess I'll stay here."

"Good—I'll help you. And, I dunno, maybe if Naruto's still hanging out he can help too—" Sakura mused, tapping her chin.

"Can you kick the other guy out? He's kind of scary." Ino interrupted, raising an eyebrow and paying special attention to Sakura's reaction.

"Who, Sasuke? He isn't so bad—once you get past the _pyromaniac asshole_ who _burned my home down_ bit—" Sakura ranted, getting increasingly irritated as she talked.

"He's pretty," Ino interjected, a coy grin curling over her face. Sakura faltered a second—staring at her. _That_ was Ino, right there.

"Well, yeah," she grumbled, snapping out of her nostalgic daze. "Still a jerk though."

"He looks at you a lot," Ino sang, and looped an arm around Sakura's shoulder quickly, before she lost her nerve. Sakura didn't seem to notice, being preoccupied with snorting.

"Oh, yeah, as in _glaring_."

"He's confused. I bet you he thinks that's what _bedroom eyes_ are." Ino snickered, and flicked Sakura's forehead.

"Oh Ino, _GROSS_!" Sakura wailed, planting her hands forcefully over her ears. She shuddered once more for theatrics, and then looped her chain off of her neck, selected her key, and let herself into the apartment.

She dropped her key back around her neck, clicked on the lights, and froze.

Ino followed her inside and nearly dissolved into hysterical laughter.

Sasuke glared at both of them, legs crossed Indian style. He stifled a yawn and swiped quickly at his eyes. "_What_?" he demanded, scotching upwards on his newly stolen chair.

Sakura's mouth fell open, closed, and opened again. Her eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head, and Ino was nearly on the floor laughing.

His face felt weird. Nonchalantly, he reached upwards and scratched at his cheek.

His fingers came away purple—and Naruto was snoring suspiciously on the floor, apparently doing his best to appear innocently asleep. A sense of dread seeped into Sasuke's, almost hesitantly he strode over to the window and peered at his reflection.

He had somehow transformed into a clown while sleeping. Just like Naruto's sleeping bag was somehow rolling towards the door. "_You_," Sasuke snarled, and stalked over to where his best friend was escaping, "_Are dead_."

* * *

Sakura crossed the street quickly, papers clutched to her chest. Something was very, _very _wrong_…_

She had gone to the library earlier that day, hoping to do some research for Ino. None of her medical text books had said anything about the proper way to deliver a baby, so the library had been the next logical step. She logged on to the computer, researched—and then started browsing—reading up on recommended diets, popular names—

Funny how much you could tell about a person from their name.

It took her just under an hour to return home. Sasuke and Naruto looked to be on the edge of a fight, while Ino sat moodily by the window.

"Hey, Sakura-chan—" Naruto started to say before she interrupted him.

"Okay—guys," Sakura interrupted the glaring fest, and shot a quick glance to Ino. "There's something really weird happening. I was doing some research, and—well, just look."

She handed out the sheets of paper, and waited for them to finish reading.

"Most popular baby names?" Sasuke snarled, after a second of skimming.

"Just read it," Sakura snarled edgily.

"You are so annoying," Sasuke spat back, but began.

A couple seconds passed.

"Hey forehead—what are we supposed to be looking at?" Ino asked, raising one of her eyebrows and folding up her paper. "It's just a bunch of names."

"Every single name on that list is a boy name." Sakura replied in a monotone, her eyes dark. "And I know—it could just be a coincidence—but I checked the birth records. It was covered up at first, several official documents lie about it—but I went through each person _individually_—"

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke interrupted, his shoulders hunching, a prickle of unease making him aggressive.

She paused, and sighed heavily, "The point is…not a single baby girl's been born in the past ten years."

"What?" Naruto asked blankly, his eyes almost popping out of his head, "But—that can't be right! We're all going to _die_ if that's—"

"Liar," Ino said suddenly, her chin jerking up spasmodically. Those around her stared in puzzlement as the blonde girl's face began to contort in rage. "You freaking _liar_—"

"I am not," Sakura snapped, "Lying about this. Look Ino, you saw the records, I got the proof right in front of you—"

"Sakura," Naruto interrupted, one startling animalistic canine pulling back at his lower lip, "There has to be some sort of mistake. That's not statistically possible."

"That's the point," Sakura hissed agitatedly, her hair starting to stand on end, "Something's going on here!"

Ino laughed harshly, her lovely eyes wide with suppressed fear and forceful scorn, "You can't be serious. Look, Sakura, you can't keep living in your dream world." Her voice lowered at the end of her proclamation, her expression flickering into pity. Sakura's jaw tightened minutely.

"I'm not making this up Ino," she said softly, her shoulders trembling from strain. "I'm not lying to you about this. This is real, I promise you." Ino shook her head sharply, and looked bleakly down at the floor. Her hands flattened over her still-flat stomach unconsciously.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said quietly, "Are you trying to say that—that the army's been drugging us or something? C'mon—"

"Are you really that surprised?" Sasuke said suddenly, speaking up for the first time. He folded his paper fastidiously, and slipped it into one of his many pockets. Meaningfully, he looked up at Naruto, locking eyes with the other boy. Some unsaid message seemed to filter through them. "Are you _stupid_?"

Naruto's lips thinned and he pressed himself backwards into the shadowed wall. The whisker-tattoos on his face were abruptly thrown into sharp relief. Sakura started abruptly; for a second, Naruto had almost resembled some sort of monster.

"The army," Sasuke's low voice broke her away from her musings, "Is the only organized party that is powerful enough to do something this big."

"But," Ino interrupted suddenly, and her eyes flashed over to Sakura's challengingly, "The human race won't be able to continue if there aren't any girls. If they're altering the sex of the embryo's so that they'll all be boys—well, it just doesn't make any sense. Why would they be doing that?"

"Tradition?" Naruto guessed wildly, "The idea that men are more suited for military purposes?"

"That's crap and you know it," Sasuke said dismissively, "The sign-ups don't work like that anymore. Back with the original World Wars, females were still being oppressed. They aren't doing that now—if you haven't been paying attention to the street combs."

"And," Sakura added, "Even if it was the idea of physical superiority—we fight with guns and other pretty toys now. It doesn't matter if you're a guy and a three hundred pound linebacker or a size extra-small woman. All that matters is who shoots first."

"See?" Ino snarled, "It's ridiculous, there's no gain for them—"

"Maybe," Naruto interrupted her, speaking so quietly that Sakura wasn't even sure how they'd heard him. His face was still cast in shadow, making Sakura wish she had light bulbs and didn't need to rely on the sun for illumination. Naruto continued croakily, "Maybe it was a mistake."

Sasuke was watching Naruto carefully again, his slanted eyes narrowed speculatively, one dark eyebrow swooping downwards. "It could be the North-side," he said calmly, diverting the attention away from Naruto. "A ploy to thin our numbers."

"But—" Sakura frowned, "South-side's the one fighting for human experimentation, and altering the gender of an embryo's definitely going to fall within that 'forbidden category.' Does the north-side even have any genetic research?"

"Probably not," Sasuke agreed, "But they might, and it's the only thing making sense so far."

Ino bit her lip and asked, voice quavering, "So—does that mean I'll have a boy? I haven't—I haven't been _injected_ or anything…"

"I don't know," Sakura said quietly, "I…I really don't know."

The four of them stood in silence, minds racing and hearts pounding. Sakura chewed on a hang-nail. Maybe they put something into the water system? Poisoned a crop? Or—what if it was an _inhalant_—

"Hey," Naruto spoke suddenly, and his hands clenched together tightly, "What're we going to do now?"

Sasuke snorted, lying sideways on his armchair, his legs thrown carelessly over the side, "Something stupid, knowing you."

Naruto, for once, tactfully ignored him.

"Hey," Sakura spoke, "What about Tsunade? She'd know all about this stuff, right?"

But Naruto was shaking his head, "She'd know how to do a check up and shit, but there's no way of her knowing about this. Plus, she's hard to find. Old hag's always moving around…"

"The—are there any hospitals around here?" Ino wondered aloud, puzzled. Sasuke jerked his head to the side, and Naruto shrugged.

"The hospitals would have birth records," Sakura mused, "And probably some sort of compound check, so if we went through some files to see if people had abnormally high levels of…iron, let's say…"

"Patients go to hospitals," Sasuke grumbled, unimpressed, "Sick people. They ALL probably have some sort of chemical imbalance."

"So what do you suggest we do, just break in to the royal palace and hold the generals at gunpoint until they give us an answer?" Sakura snapped, her teeth grinding together loudly. Sasuke glared back at her, though his look was curiously empty of venom.

"We could," Ino mumbled almost-casually, "Check the North-side for little girls."

"But—" Sakura finally said after yet another prolonged silence, "How could we get over there? The border's a dangerous place."

"They aren't fighting along the whole thing," Ino pointed out. "Over to the west, I don't think anyone's guarding the sea."

"They are," Sasuke said dully, "That beach is so full of land-mines a mouse couldn't get through. There's a complex current system going on as well, so the water in the bay's flowing in a constant circle. They spiked the water with acid, and the rip tides will keep any boats from leaving."

"How much acid?" Ino insisted stubbornly, "We don't need to get out of the bay, we just need to go along the shore."

"A lot of acid," Sasuke said dully, not bothering to push back the dark bangs falling into his face, "Enough to eat through the hull of an iron-enforced boat in under half an hour."

"The rivers then?" Ino pressed on. Sakura shot a glance at the other girl, wondering why Ino was so desperate. She must really not want her baby to be a boy.

Naruto laughed, "I tried that already. Heat-sensitive barb wire, it sends an electric shock through the water and fries you."

"So basically," Sakura sighed, and leaned unconsciously against Sasuke's chair. "The only way through is to make a break for it on the front lines? That's impossible."

But Sasuke was watching her, his eyes cast upwards through his hair to rest on where she was leaning. An ironic smirk tugged at his face, unsaid considerations flitting through his head. "No," he said softly, "It's not."

* * *

Ino let out a shaky sigh, wallowing in the cold air. Her feet burned from the constant press of gravel, and her arms were crossed tightly over her chest for warmth. "Hinata!" She called, and stepped daintily across the street, ignoring the group of hungry-looking adolescents.

Ino slid through the alleys, her conscience weighing heavily on her shoulders. Hinata had given up everything, all her security and comforts, just to follow Ino, because Ino had asked her to. And then to repay her, Ino had taken off, reuniting with lost friends and interacting with new ones.

"Hinata?" Ino yelled again, hoping that the other girl hadn't taken off—or worse, gone back to their brothel. Her hope was starting to run out though; she'd been searching for over an hour now, and still no sign of the girl.

Maybe Hinata didn't want to be found. Ino sighed, and ducked back out to the main street, padding along dejectedly. The sun burned coldly overhead, offering light but no warmth; meaning that Ino should head home soon, else she'd be sick. Ino set a brisk pace, flitting towards a run-down park. She really ought to be heading home…

Instead, she crawled through the hole in the chain-link fence, brushed her knees off, and chose a seat on the still-remaining swing. The chains were rusted iron, and the entire structure shook warningly when Ino rocked back-and-forth, so she remained carefully stationary.

A soft snuffle came from the tube slide. Ino disregarded it, thinking to let whoever was inside continue their rest.

After some time, when her fingers began to feel as if they were burning, Ino rose, and started to leave. "You ought to get inside," she called to whoever was in the slide. Whipping her blonde pony-tail over her shoulder, she waltzed towards the fence.

From behind her, a soft voice beckoned, "Ino?"

The blonde froze, and then turned around abruptly, "_Hinata_!?"

And it _was_ her, all cold-flushed cheeks and pale everything—definitely Hinata. Her eyes were that pale-pale lavender that Ino remembered, though her hair was starting to look a little ragged.

"Oh," Hinata breathed, "You found me." A small, gentle smile pulled across her face, "I'm so glad…"

"Hinata," Ino repeated stupidly, shocked. Abruptly, she took several long strides across the playground, and grabbed the other girl's hand tightly, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling it gave her. "Hinata, come on, you look frozen."

"I—I am." Hinata laughed a little, her forehead alarming hot to the touch, "Took you a while, Ino."

"I'm sorry," Ino said softly, "I—I didn't know where you were. Now please, come with me."

Hinata's face was guarded, her dark hair fluttering around delicate features. She panted a little, her already unnaturally flushed face darkening. "Are they…nice?" She asked lightly, eyes averted as she feigned disinterest. Ino blinked.

"Who?"

"Your friends," Hinata replied, and managed to sound accusing without meaning to. Ino flinched, but refused to withdraw her hand.

"Mostly," she managed a smile. "They all want to meet you Hinata."

Hinata laughed; a dry, rasping sound. Ino stomped on her alarm, firmly telling herself not to panic. Hinata shook her head from side to side, disbelief and irony claiming her. "Meet me?"

"Yes," Ino said firmly, "So please come."

"Is he there?" Hinata asked shyly, pale eyes brilliant and arresting, "The one who chased me?"

"Yeah," Ino nodded, "But he isn't so bad—he's not going to hurt you, though he can be kind of annoying sometimes." She forced a laugh, which sounded mechanical. Hinata considered her, and then raised her other hand, resting it lightly on Ino's face.

"Don't—don't…leave me again," Hinata brokenly commanded, and Ino nodded vigorously.

"I won't, I promise."

* * *

"You don't need to wear anything to be a part of the army. They know you by the tattoos, barcodes, if you wanna be picky." Naruto was explaining to Sakura, carefully sliding the sharpie over the skin on her back. She frowned, shivering a little from the cold, wet feel of the marker.

"Then, won't they know I'm not one of them? I'm not going to turn up on their scanners."

"Hence the low profile," Naruto grinned, and started scribbling minute numbers below the parallel, vertical lines. Sakura grimaced.

"This has got to be the most retarded thing I have ever done," she mumbled, her muscles relaxing in relief as Naruto finished. He let out a sharp bark of laughter.

"What, voluntarily going front line? That's not half as bad as me."

"Maybe I'm just smarter," Sakura teased, holding her hand out for the marker. "Give it, I'll do you now."

"Oh _please_ do," Naruto leered. Sakura threw the marker at him, her eyes narrowed in mock anger.

"Pervert. So, the plan is to just sneak around until the next battle? Then we run into the melee, avoid being killed, and sneakily switch over the sides?" She asked, and bit her tongue in concentration as she applied the mock tattoos.

"Pretty much. Avoid all the scanners, too."

"Yeah, I know." Sakura finished, and rocked back on her heels to admire her work. "Okay, I think you're done—"

The door to their base opened, revealing a grouchy Sasuke. Sakura blinked, idly wondering what had gotten him into such a bad mood. He paused on entering the threshold, his dark eyes drinking in Naruto and her. Self consciously, Sakura tugged her shirt down so the skin on her back was no longer exposed. She smiled forcibly.

"Hey, do you want me to disguise you?" She asked lightly, and failed to notice Naruto stiffening beside her. Sasuke froze for a second, and then spoke; his voice flat.

"No," he said simply, and fishing around beneath his coat, produced two acid-launchers. He tossed the weapons carelessly towards them. "Just point and shoot. Only use the acid close-range, use _these_," he tossed them some bullets, "For long range."

Sakura cradled her weapon gently, her mouth pressed into a thin line. "Okay, now we just have to wait for Ino—"

"She's not coming," Sasuke replied flatly, and started smearing camo-paint across his face. Sakura blinked, and began to protest, but Sasuke cut her off again. "We don't need very many people. Three's a good number, means at least one of us will be able to make it. Too many will make us stand out."

Naruto nudged Sakura lightly, and smiled with his eyes and mouth. "Don't worry about it,. Everyone's going to make it; Sasuke just likes being a drama-queen."

Sasuke shot him a glare, and threw the container of paint at him. "Put that on," he ordered, and marched stiffly out the door. Dipping his fingers obediently into the paint, Naruto reached over and, before she could stop him, drew a smiley-face on Sakura cheek. She scowled at him, and deliberately ran her fingers through his hair, coating the blond strands in green-brown muck.

Sasuke came back, rolling his eyes, and threw two dark, skin-tight suits at them. Sakura picked up the smaller one and eyed it distastefully—it looked like a wet suit.

"Soldier's garb," Sasuke told them coolly, already having changed into his. Sakura eyed him curiously. The suit ended just before his elbows and knees. It looked streamlined, silver and black, with no pockets and a hood to cover hair.

She grabbed her suit and slid quickly into her sleeping bag, did a bit of maneuvering, and then came out dressed as Sasuke was. Naruto popped his head out of his own sleeping bag and smiled approvingly. "Nice suit—"

"Shut up," Sakura grumbled, crossing her arms self-consciously. It took her a second to realize that Naruto wasn't the only one staring. "What?!" She hissed defensively at Sasuke.

He blinked, slow and deliberate. "You need to eat more," he said calmly, and turned away coolly. Sakura twitched, and blinked downwards at her figure.

* * *

"You," Sasuke commanded the two of them as the made their way down the street, "Are going to have to do exactly as I say." Sakura frowned at him, but didn't comment on the alpha-male attitude. If she hadn't already decided that he was a robot, she would have said that Sasuke looked scared. In a condemned sort of way. Naruto wasn't saying anything either, which was unusual, and made her think that there was something going on she didn't know about.

Sakura tugged uncomfortably at her clothes. She felt weird and bulky with her multiple layers, but this was the easiest way to do things. If they were walking down the street in soldier's clothes, people might think it was another sweep and react violently. For now, her jumpsuit was safely hidden beneath her civilian outfit.

The moon was out, Sakura noted. Full, and tinted green from the city's fumes. It was kind of pretty, so long as she didn't think about what she had to be breathing in.

The military base was less then half a mile away now. Her heart began beating faster, drumming hard against her sternum and reverberating within her ears. She forcibly slowed her breathing, fingers curling into tiny fists. She could do this. She would do this. She—

A strong hand pulled her sharply into an alley. She almost staggered, her hands bracing themselves against Sasuke's chest and retracting quickly, as though she had been burned. She coughed softly and falsely, studiously looking away from him.

Naruto grinned widely, pretending to press his face down onto his hands, holding it cradled there. "Aw…" He cooed, his foxy eyes curving upwards as Sakura blushed. "You two are so _cute_…"

Sasuke muttered something, and with concern Sakura noticed how bleak he sounded, like insulting Naruto wasn't really worth his energy. "Moron, get out of your clothes." Sasuke ordered snappily.

Naruto's eyes widened in fake-horror, "But _Sasuke_," he cooed, "People are watching us! We can't—not _here_—"

Sasuke hit him over the head irritably, a spark of anger over taking his haunted expression. Sakura laughed in a sort of horrified way, her hands clapped tightly over her mouth. She stripped down to her jumpsuit and waited for the other two to do so. The suits they wore had been designed with a hole strategically located around the area of the bar-codes, so that the skin was exposed and ready to be easily scanned.

Sakura checked Naruto's back quickly, "Your ink's not smudged, is mine?"

Naruto's eyes slid and lingered over her for a beat too long, "No."

"Sasuke—?"

"It's not," Sasuke said shortly, and stalked forward towards the base, his feet shoved sloppily into his combat boots. Sakura frowned after him, sliding her gaze over to Naruto, and indicating with her head that they should follow him.

Sakura tugged on the sleeve of Sasuke's suit, "Why're you so confident?"

Naruto twitched on her other side, shaking his head a little in warning. Sasuke stopped dead, his face still angled sharply towards the ground. Slowly, he looked upwards to the sky. "Because," he rasped, "It's not ink."

Sakura blinked, not sure she understood correctly. "It's a tattoo? Then—"

"Whole package," Sasuke corrected her with a suddenly violent snarl, "Tattoo, computer chip, tracker."

"But," Sakura stuttered, "You aren't part of the army—"

"No," Sasuke agreed, his breath hissing out between his teeth, "I ran away." He darted forward abruptly, as though he couldn't bear to stand with them.

Sakura watched him go, a blank numbness spreading through her. "He was—in the army? He killed people?"

Naruto was very quiet, but his hand touched her shoulder reassuringly. "He's still the same person, isn't he?"

She stood stock-still, mouth slightly open in surprise. Abruptly, she grabbed Naruto's hand and rushed him forwards, sprinting after Sasuke.

He hadn't gone far, choosing to pause and wait for them for the last few blocks. Silently, they made their way to the base. It wouldn't be hard to enter, the doors were unguarded on the civilian side. You'd have to be mad to launch an attack against the army.

Just as they were about to enter, a thought stuck Sakura. "Sasuke—what if someone recognizes you?"

"No one will," Sasuke said shortly, and continued forward. He paused again at Sakura's questioning noise, and cast a quick glance over to her. For a moment, no one spoke. Naruto shifted uneasily, looking between his two friends.

"Everyone I worked with—all the people in my unit…died." Sasuke said finally, and wrenched open the door.

Without even thinking about it, Sakura darted after him, gratefully for the reassuring pressure behind her that Naruto offered. The grey, dismal street was slapped away and replaced with controlled chaos. The room that they were standing in was empty, but distant shouting could be heard from all around.

Sasuke turned back, "It's easy to get in, but they'll have guards on the other side of the door. Naruto, you stick with Sakura. We're going to split up—they're launching an attack at dawn, and I want to get some work done before then."

"Work?" Naruto asked curiously, squinting one of his eyes against the harsh sizzle of the single, bare light bulb. "Dude, you need a _vacation_—"

"Do you still remember your way around?" Sasuke interrupted him woodenly, "Meet up at med-station 3 at five-hundred-hours?"

"Say five in the morning, jerk-off. You ran away for a reason, so don't start talkin' weird." Naruto rolled his eyes, and tugged on Sakura's exposed wrist. "C'mon, we need to hide for a few hours. Do some drills or something."

Sakura blinked, shaken from her shocked/sleepy daze. "But—what about Sasuke—"

"I'll come back," Sasuke said grumpily. He lead the way to the door, a stained steel barrier separating them from the hallway. Sakura blinked at him pleadingly.

"You promise?"

"Yeah."

"God," Naruto interjected, "Have you guys been watching 'Days of Our Lives' again?" He ducked quickly, having anticipated the sharp kick Sasuke threw to his side. Without another word, the grim boy slipped into the hall.

* * *

Sasuke knew what would happen if he got scanned. His code had been marked out as a deserter's, so the second the computer recognized him, alarms would be sounded and soldiers would come running.

Problem was, he needed to get into the research facility, and research facilities came with scanners.

Smoothly, Sasuke lurked in the dark shadows of the building, his eyes straining against the darkness as he peered outwards, checking for an approaching soldier.

A group of three were drawing nearer, chatting softly to one another. Sasuke tensed, glaring intently, calculating how quickly he was going to need to move.

The trio had reached the doorway, one of them separating from the others and offering their back to the scanner, patiently waiting for the reading to finish. Every muscle in Sasuke's body felt like it was vibrating as he strained forwards against invisible barriers.

The door clicked, and Sasuke took a pace forwards—only to jerk himself backwards violently in the next second. The group hadn't taken any notice of him, and merely proceeded onwards.

Sasuke let out a breath as the door swung shut behind them, relaxing back into shadows. Sulkily, he glared at his object of frustrations—the sole security camera he had only just seen.

* * *

"What're they doing to them?" Sakura whispered fearfully, more to herself then to Naruto. Fresh screams were flooding from the detention center they had passed through several hours ago. Naruto grimaced, stirring half-heartedly at the gruel he had been given.

"Sweepers just came back, I guess. Those wailers are the slummers they just got from the streets."

"Are they _torturing_ them?" Sakura shot back. She fidgeted on the wooden bench, her short finger nails drumming agitatedly against her knee. Naruto frowned, and kicked his heels back against the wall.

"Breaking them in. Tattoos and the microchips—they don't give you painkillers." All around them, dead faced soldiers loitered against the cafeteria's wall, legs splayed outwards, backs slumping forwards dejectedly. None of them paid any interest in what the others were doing.

"That's…disgusting."

"Well," Naruto laughed cheerfully, "Someone usually hits you over the head if they're going for amputation—or if you're really young." Disgusted with the food they had given him, he dumped it over the side of the bowl, watching the runny white paste puddle on the ground. Sakura looked on with unseeing eyes.

"Did they do that to Sasuke? Was he really young?"

"You kidding me? They got him the second he was born," he snorted, and scrunched up his nose at her. "Almost kind. A baby's nerves aren't fully developed."

"I _know_ that," Sakura grumbled, resentful that he had assumed superiority over her knowledge of the human body. A prickle of interest sparked through her mind, "So Sasuke's parents were in the army?"

"His—oh." Naruto's face turned wary, "Forget I said that."

"But—!"

"Look," he interrupted her, face more serious then she had ever seen it. "I can't tell you about Sasuke's life, okay? I'm sorry, but—I can't say that." He trailed off rather lamely, begging her to understand, but refusing to relent on this one issue.

* * *

"Hurry up," Sasuke grumbled. He tapped his partially gloved fingers against the camera, _"Come on…"_

With an exhausted sigh, the camera stopped, whirling back from life—leaving Sasuke with nothing more then a half developed photograph.

A photograph with exactly the same picture as the view from the security camera.

Sasuke moved fast, sliding the frame into place with eye-blurring speed. On the monitors, the screen would blink—but remain unchanged. It wasn't a perfect defense—but it'd keep them unsuspecting for a while, and keep his face unseen.

The next group of three heading for the facility would not be passing through. Instead, they'd be waking up several hours later tucked beneath some bushes with massive head pains.

Sasuke dragged one of the unconscious men towards the scanner, holding the man perfectly still as the computer checked the code.

The lock popped, and he was in.

Scan done, Sasuke blinked back into normal black. Time for some creative problem solving.

Which meant that he tripped every damn alarm he saw—it was a public facility, after all. The bells wouldn't be ringing until they had a cross reference on his face. Sasuke knew this system—by the time the higher-ups even caught a whiff of an illegal cut-out being on thief turf, he'd be long gone.

Or very dead. It all depended on how well he remembered to fly an X-board.

They had installed cameras around the main computer. There was no way for him to use it without them seeing him—the stupid webcam was directly linked to the monitor. If he smashed it, the entire system would go into lock down.

He would just have to work quickly then, and hope that the person watching wasn't an old friend.

There were ways the military had of finding people. Just punch in their barcode number, and you could find them instantly by satellite. Numbers were recorded in records, permanent files, and the database.

It had taken Sasuke a while to erase the records they had on him, before he jumped ship. He wasn't the only runaway to have done so.

The person Sasuke was looking for wasn't listed in the records. Though, that was to be expected. If he was, the military would have gone after him for first class treason.

It was a lucky thing that Sasuke remembered the barcode number he needed, then.

_824442-482244._

He typed the number in, hoping his long bangs would hide his face from the camera for the time being. The screen flickered, data loading. Sasuke licked his lips, sparing a glance for the clock in the corner of the screen. 4:35 a.m. He had twenty five minutes to get his info, get out of here, steal three X-boards, and get to the meeting point.

This would be interesting.

"Data loaded," the computer chimed, and Sasuke's attention snapped back to the screen in front of him. A single red dot blinked, moving slowly along a street Sasuke didn't recognize the name of. He frowned, and zoomed out, searching for familiar land marks.

13th avenue, 14th, 15th…

All of the streets, Sasuke realized, were organized by numbers. South side was entirely made up of lettered streets. This meant…

That his target had to be on north side.

Sasuke grinned predatorily. Looked like following Naruto's lead had actually paid off, for once. Granted, the others might not like it too much if they found out about the little detour he was planning—but there were ways of dealing with that.

A savage sense of purpose surged up within him, and with a final look at the small dot, Sasuke fled, making sure to wipe the screen's data.

"So, what where you doing in a military camp if you weren't fighting?" She crossed her arms challengingly, bringing to light that thus-far avoided topic.

"…Well, I wasn't a soldier." Naruto's laugh sounded rather forced, "Anyway, you see that ridge over there? That's our blocker. They've got scouts walking along the top, incase the enemy launches a surprise attack. My guess is that the North-side has something just like it, a couple miles back or so. Between that space is where the combat takes place."

"…Great." Sakura drew in a deep breath, squinting at the soldiers several yards from her, trying to make out the large, bulky weapons they held, "Got any paper?"

"Nope," Naruto gave her an odd look, "Why?"

"I want to write my will," Sakura said, only half-joking. Naruto laughed weakly, looking slightly panicked.

"We can use Sasuke as a shield." He offered.

"Oh, but that would ruin his pretty face," Sakura muttered, trying for sarcasm and not pulling it off as well as she'd have liked.

"Thanks for the concern, Sakura," a voice spoke suddenly from above them. A second later, and Sasuke crashed down beside Naruto, panting heavily, three oddly shaped objects pressed between his arm and side.

Sakura blanched, and sternly reminded herself that _this was not the time to blush._

"You know what this is?" Sasuke asked, and shoved one of the mysterious objects at her. It was black, but oddly shiny in the light—like polished obsidian. One side had spongy, rubbery grippers spread across it. It was a little longer then her forearm, and about as wide as her foot. A small engine was strapped to the bottom of one of the sides.

Sakura shook her head, "No…"

Sasuke sighed like the world was ending, and looked almost pleadingly at Naruto, who shook his head as well.

"Great," Sasuke hissed sarcastically, throwing one of the things at Naruto. "This should be fun."

"Thanks for the optimism," Naruto whispered, mindful of the people dashing around them, "Now explain."

Sasuke sent him a long suffering look. "This is an X-board. Unfold them, you'll see that it's got three more legs."

They did so, delicately. The engine was directly centered, with the four legs extending outwards to form an X.

Sparing a glance at the people rushing unknowingly past them, Sasuke flipped a switch, and the board hummed to life, rising several inches, out of the bushes. Most of the people were already on the ridge top, and the others paid them no mind.

"Your boards are magnetic," Sasuke explained, "So use the grippers for traction, but don't worry about falling off. You're glued to the board, since there's quite a lot of metal in combat boots—which you're wearing."

"Great." Naruto said grumpily, "No one's going to have to even shoot—I'll kill myself by hitting a bird in a few seconds."

"The thing to worry about," Sasuke continued on, pausing to give Naruto a slightly satisfied look, "Is balance. Half the soldiers out there can't even move forwards, the training's so inadequate. So some blond idiot shouldn't stand out too much."

"I resent that," Naruto said grumpily. Tentatively, Sakura laid her board on the ground, and flicked the switch on. She stepped on carefully, feeling her foot latch into place. Bracing herself, she swung her other foot onto the opposite side.

The board tipped slightly as the side went down, but straightened immediately when she leveled it out.

"You move," Sasuke explained, jumping onto his own board flawlessly, rolling his eyes when Naruto smacked inelegantly into the med center. "By tipping the side forwards. The downside is, you move down as well. To go up," he indicated the center of the board, "You stomp on the engine a bit."

A streak of light slipped over the horizon, as the sun rose upwards, majestic in its splendor.

A bell rang, deep and mournfully. Up on the ridge, the first few people peeled off and sped into unknown territory.

"Cool," Sakura whispered, dread and adrenaline smoking her out and pushing her forwards. She stomped down hard on the center of the board, and rose rapidly, shooting straight forwards.

She stopped, twenty feet high, and started speeding towards the ridge, pulling out her acid gun as she did so.

"Faster," Sasuke urged. Naruto was between both of them, Sakura and Sasuke supporting either side. Together, they shot down the rise, tiny amidst the other cloud of soldiers. Sasuke had been right, Sakura realized. The entire thing was chaos—soldiers crashing into one another, boards zipping towards their fallen riders.

And the enemy was still a good mile away.

"Get in the middle!" Naruto yelled, keeping one hand on Sasuke's shoulder. He let go of Sakura's arm and wobbled precariously.

Sasuke was looking tense, flying hard. He moved forward in a sudden burst of speed, throwing the other boy off balance. Naruto squeaked, and lurched forwards. He almost collided with another rider before his board saved him.

Sasuke was moving off, leaning so hard he was almost freefalling. Naruto's arms wind wheeled, and Sakura caught a hold of him. "Step onto mine!" she yelled, "Just for balance—don't lean too hard. I'm not as heavy as you."

They slowed down, falling back into the main group again. Her head whipped around, searching for their other companion. She found him a second later, perhaps a hundred feet in front of them. Other people were crashing down around them, and the North-side had to be less then a quarter of a mile away.

"Sasuke!" She screamed, "What are you _doing_?! Get back and help—"

"We can't _all_ survive this, Sakura!" Sasuke yelled back, "We're too big a target now, we've got a better shot at things if we split up." He pivoted, facing them fully, leaning backwards and gunning the engine.

Sakura's face paled even further. Without Sasuke, she and Naruto didn't have a prayer. "If you leave us, we're going to—"

"He's slowing you down," Sasuke's face was very, very cold. "Leave him, Sakura. You might make it."

"You…" Naruto's entire body trembled, his hold on her wrist crushing. "You…_bastard_, I—" Naruto sounded like he might've been clamping down a sob. A swirl of rage and grief poured through Sakura as she glanced over towards him. "I thought we were _friends_."

Sasuke breathed in sharply. "There are things…" He locked eyes with Naruto, "More important then friends. And this is something that I _have_ to do."

Sakura thought that Naruto might have stopped breathing. Tears were pricking at her eyes, and she bared her teeth, wiping them hastily. How _could_ he? How could he just abandon her—how could he abandon _Naruto_, who he was closer to then anyone else?

"…Weak…" Sasuke breathed, and slammed down hard on his engine, again and again.

Sakura scrubbed at her cheeks, the backs of her hands coming away wet. "Be a cannibal, Sasuke," she quipped bitterly. "Eat a rat."

* * *

Ino slid open the window, and clambered out awkwardly. Her bare feet burned from the cold, melting the first acid snowflakes with inaudible sizzles. She shimmied down the neighbor's fire escape, resting morosely on the ladder, swinging her feet through frosty air. Sometimes she just needed to _breath_—

"Ino…?" A familiar, but forgotten voice sounded from below. Ino peered down, and gaped.

"What—_Choji_?" She slid down another few notches, scrutinizing his wide, kind face. Choji pulled his coat more tightly around him, and smiled up at her confusedly. The lines of his face softened into relief.

"…What're you doing here? I thought you died…" He trailed off, uncertainty erasing his happy expression. Ino tried for a grin, and pitched her voice back into its old, boisterous tone.

"It seems a lot of people've been thinking that these days. They usually say it with that same disappointed expression too." She laughed a little at the end, just so he'd know she was kidding. Choji still looked alarmed.

"I just…your town blew up. It seemed pretty unlikely…" He tugged on a lock of reddish-brown hair, tipping his head curiously to the side. Ino shrugged, and leaned out further. She didn't want to go into her past with Choji—not yet, anyway.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You still with your family? Mom still make the best cookies on the planet?" If there was one thing she could count on as discussion with Choji, it was food. It was therefore staggering to see his expression crumple. Ino steeled herself for the inevitable.

"…No. No, there aren't anymore cookies." Choji looked at the ground, and scuffed one of his feet. A little bit of snow melted on Ino's temple, and slid down to her chin. She shivered from the cold, and something else.

"Oh. I-I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, Ino. I've got a friend to hang out with—I just haven't seen him much lately. I think he met a girl." Choji's change of topic was almost pathetically obvious, but she chased it anyway, desperate for something.

"Oh yeah? Want me to kick his ass for you?"

"Ha, sure. Nara Shikamaru—he's got this growth coming out of his head. Hard to miss him."

The moist fog of Ino's breath did not come. It seemed that she had become one with the icy metal she sat on—immobile.

"…Did you say Shikamaru?" Her head swam, memories drowning. Choji blinked up at her in concern and a little hope.

"…Yeah, why? Do you know him?"

"Yeah, I do. Lazy bum." Her laughter was brittle, and shredded her throat coming up. Choji appeared to have not noticed, for he snickered.

"That's him, alright." His eyes curved up, reminiscing towards the asphalt. Ino's toes curled, trying to keep warm. She wanted to pull her arms under her shirt, but didn't dare loosen her grip on the ladder.

"Wait, so he—he was seeing someone?" A little panic flared sharply, and she squashed it firmly. Choji had begun bouncing on the balls of his feet—obviously, the cold was getting to him as well.

"I dunno, think so. He was always sneaking out at night—usually looked kinda excited about it. Well, you know, as excited as Shikamaru can be."

"So…so where is he?"

"I don't know. He left a few days ago, hasn't come back since. Maybe he eloped and they're down on a beach in Fiji. Doubt it, though." Choji bit his lip, and her panic rekindled, spurred on by guilt and dread.

"Why?"

"Just the way he looked last time I saw him. Kinda tense, sort of worried. Maybe they got into a fight or something. He only stopped by our place for a minute to grab his coat and a backpack of God-knows-what." Choji rattled the facts off hollowly, and with a jolt, Ino realized that he was just like her—clinging to the hope of return, no guarantees.

Maybe Ino couldn't fix herself. Maybe she was a weak, dirty girl who couldn't set foot in a church for fear of spontaneous combustion. But maybe there were still things for her to do.

"Okay…Well, I have to go. My feet are freezing. I live right over there—" She jerked her chin upwards, indicating the open window. "So come over whenever you want. We'll drink water and pretend it's tea." Choji looked about as enthusiastic as her proposal had been. He started walking back through the alley, glancing over his shoulder once, watching the long-limbed girl scramble upwards.

"Sounds delicious."

Ino smiled and waved him away, then darted inside, roughly pulling on her shoes, coat—and slamming the door on her way out.

Someone was waiting.

* * *

Naruto was flying in front of Sakura, moving in a dementedly straight line, his feet planted and a dead soldier on hand as a shield.

Sakura zoomed through the air, dodging over careening X-boards and free-falling soldiers, some dead, some not. She was perhaps fifty feet from the ground, her gun in hand, still unused.

Two people were flying towards her, one of them a South, the other a North. The South seemed to have gone berserker, his machine gun spitting out bullets rapid-fire. The North was aiming carefully, her eyes wild.

Sakura screeched to a halt, board going on a diagonal slant, and threw herself off her board, plummeting head-first towards the ground, the bottoms of her feet clamped together. "Naruto!" She shot down by him, thirty feet up, "Behind you!"

Her feet separated, and with a lurch, she was connected again. With a little spin, she righted herself, and slammed down, shooting back up to her previous level. Half way there, the North's splintered board sparked down past her, followed shortly thereafter by the rider.

Impulsively, Sakura reached out and grabbed her arm, her feet grinding in for traction as she shifted hard right. Hysterical brown eyes met her own, the rest of the woman's face hidden by a helmet. Sakura's mouth opened—and she shut it again uncertainly. Tentatively, she smiled. A little sag of relief pulled at the North's brow—and then the veins of her eyes bulged horrendously, her gasp silence by the muffle of her helmet.

The South berserker had shot her in the back of the head.

Sakura's fingers numbed and the dead slipped through her fingers. A wave of hysteria washed over her—not just for the death before her, but _all around_ her. Everywhere, she could see people falling, crashing, disintegrating. The air rang with the screams of guns and people alike, as slowly, the ranks thinned.

And it wasn't even seven in the morning.

Sakura leaned hard to the left, moving faster then she ever had before, her back heels lifted, one hand pushing the motor as she crouched, flying for the berserker. They were still spinning in a circle, shooting blindly. She flew until she was almost directly beneath them, then hit the motor as hard as she could, almost flying.

She came up beside him, instantly grabbing his attention. He shot—but she had already moved, pushing off of the board's uplift into a front-flip over his head. Her legs pulled in as a shield, feet clamped together, and she fired.

She could hardly miss from such a distance.

Her feet spread, and she found herself once again hanging upside down, almost surrounded by a group of North's.

She lifted a foot, slamming down, and spraying a swirl of acid even as she retreated. She righted herself a second later, and tried not to dwell on the screams. Now that she was higher up, the game was different. Sharp-shooters zipped about with more order, but still playing a deadly game. This was where the people with any experience came, Sakura realized, and hit the engine, just as she leaned down, zipping strongly to the side, away from a group of Norths.

Where was Naruto…?

Oh crap. She almost screamed with fear as she found him—small and reckless and so very, very brave; heading straight toward a group of fighters ganging up on another South.

A bang sounded behind her, and a glancing pain split through her arm. She gasped, and whirled, shooting several times before bothering to aim. Not wasting time to see if she had shaken off her attacker, Sakura sped down towards Naruto, her heart in her mouth, shapes and sounds blurring around her.

She watched as they surrounded him, shot. Watched as the bullet ripped through his shoulder, watched as acid ate through his boot and burned his skin. She screamed—raw and ripping, and wished and wished and wished she was faster, she hadn't left his side.

Some North had a rocket launcher, she realized. Who hell uses rocket launchers in close combat? What kind of mental would you have to be? Naruto seemed to have seen him as well, for he turned—his beautiful, blue-blue eyes shocked wide. His mouth opened, expression morphing into terror. Another gunshot fired, and red blossom crawled out of his stomach. Shocked, he toppled forward, loosing his balance even as the rocket was launched.

"_NARUTO!"_

She was so close—so close…With a scream, she pushed off her board, hanging onto it with one hand and jackknifing it towards the missile. She rammed into Naruto from the side, realizing that by some twisted luck, the board would intercept. Not that it would do them any good—they were falling, bullets and acid showering around them.

And then a spinning, lethal thing came ripping through their ranks. Triangular, flashing razor blades had been attached to each end of the board, flecks of hot blood sliding off them. Sakura choked as burst of metal rain marked off the enemy group with pin-point accuracy. She adjusted her grip on Naruto, squinting as a spray of red decorated her face—and reached for the outstretched hand.

The leather from their fingerless gloves grated together, and Sakura gasped again at the jolting impact on her shoulder. Sasuke was already hauling her and Naruto up, as they slanted down. She handed off Naruto, who was barely conscious, and hit the motor for him, clinging to the board by her two hands.

"Get your foot on!" Sasuke roared, and seized her collar, jerking her up and nearly choking her in the process. She floundered, and by sheer luck kicked one of her feet up high enough for the magnets to pull her on. The wound on her arm was bleeding more heavily, and pierced through her in a sharp, raw way. She breathed in several deep, shuddering gasps, and unleashed a hail of bullets, her other arm holding Naruto across her lap.

"Bastard…" Naruto was laughing wetly through the blood in his mouth, "Knew you'd come back…"

"It wasn't for you," Sasuke snarled, and jammed on the motor again, shooting away from the melee and towards the enemy's encampment. Naruto was still laughing.

"'Course not. You're just a sucker for pretty faces." Naruto shifted in her lap, almost falling off. Her arms straining, Sakura held on tighter.

"I didn't come back for Sakura either," Sasuke said distastefully, not looking at her. Naruto snickered, his eyes already slipping shut.

"I was…talking about _me_…sucker…" He sighed softly, slipping down into unconsciousness. Sakura glanced at him worriedly, and pressed her hand flat to his stomach-wound, hoping the pressure would slow the flow for the time being.

"…Why did you come back?" Sakura asked quietly, watchful of the few remaining soldiers, all of whom were closer to the center then they were. Sasuke touched down to the ground, and lifted Naruto away from her, dragging the limp blond amongst the other, less lively bodies into a shallow trench.

"I don't know," Sasuke said flatly. His dark bangs hid his eyes from her questioning look. "Just did. Just a whim."

Sakura nodded awkwardly, and settled down beside Naruto, pulling up his shirt to take a better look.

_Maybe that's enough._

* * *

"Took you long enough," Shikamaru raised his eyebrows when he saw her. Ino dragged her feet nervously, glancing over her shoulder. If her any of her former _employers_ saw her, she was totally screwed. The only kind of runaways were the dead ones.

She quirked up half of her mouth, "I moved. Something came up. I'm sorry, I—I didn't stick around to tell you."

"What happened?" His face was decidedly cold. She didn't blame him. Being stood up for several weeks would put a damper on most people's good spirits.

She smothered the urge to put her hands on her still flat stomach. She still had time. She still had eight months. Ino bit her lip, and examined her shoes. "I…family stuff. I panicked."

Which wasn't a totally lie, but…well. Still.

"Oh. Who owns the bakery now?"

Bakery? What bakery—oh, right. The bakery she had invented to disguise her real profession. Ino pasted on a smile.

"I don't know—I left in a bit of a hurry. It's not like I owned the place, I just worked as a cashier."

"Mmn." Shikamaru tipped his head to the side and peered intently at her face, his eyes not as closed as they usually were. Ino forced herself to meet his gaze.

"What?" She demanded hotly after several seconds of wordless staring. Shikamaru shrugged.

"You tell me."

He turned around, and hoisted his bag up over his shoulder, walking away.

Ino stood frozen, watching his back. Her head ducked down, breathing coming in shallow pants.

"You coming?"

She looked up again, telling herself that it was the city air doing things to her eyes, and not anything else.

"Where are we going?" She questioned, and made herself stroll leisurely towards him. Something that might have been a smile pulled up Shikamaru's lips.

"You're buying me coffee. We have a date, remember?" He held out his hand invitingly. She searched his eyes, finding exasperation, patience, understanding—and something she couldn't recognize, but ran deeper then she could ever try to imagine.

She slipped her fingers between his. "I don't have any money."

"I know."


	2. North

When she woke up later that afternoon, Naruto was healed and Sasuke was gone.

She shook her remaining companion awake. Naruto blinked up at her through blond, murky eyelashes. "What's up, Sakura-chan?" he yawned. His morning breath was not the greatest.

"He's gone," Sakura said quickly, as though to rid herself of some great weight—to toss around the hot potato. "Sasuke, I mean. He's gone."

Naruto didn't seem to take it in for a few seconds. When he did, he responded by burying his face back into his arm moodily. "Asshole."

When he didn't make a move to do anything else, Sakura squatted back on her haunches, then rose awkwardly, shaking out the cramps around her knees.

He called out to her impulsively, "Don't go!"

"I'll be back," she reassured hastily, catching herself. Her tone of voice sounded like she was talking to a very small child. She coughed self consciously, and hoped the hoarseness would take the place of misplaced tenderness. "Don't worry. I'm just going to…get some water."

The sun was up. The sky was the purest blue it could get, with all the pollution. There was only a tint of orange. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, and the birds were singing through their bellies of flesh.

She doubled over and threw up. It would have been easier if it had been night—if she hadn't been able to see anything.

They'd have to sneak over the border at night, she told herself. For stealth.

So she wouldn't have to look at the broken bodies anymore.

She pulled two X-boards out of the dirt, hefted the canteens over her shoulder, and moved off to find Naruto. Who healed far too quickly—and she was going to find out about that. She had been through too much shit with them for there to be any secrets left.

Naruto was exactly where she had left him—face in the dirt, shirt off and blond hair weirdly limp. He looked about as awful as she felt.

"Here," she skittered down the steep slope to the bottom of their trench and threw the water bottle towards him. He let it bang into his shoulder, rather than catching it.

"Hey," she crouched down onto her knees beside him, touching the unbroken, tan skin carefully. There wasn't even a scar. "Naruto, why did you want to cross in the first place?"

Naruto rolled over, almost into her lap. "Because we were checking to see if there were any baby—"

"That isn't good enough," Sakura interrupted. She shook her head empathetically, "You know that wasn't the only reason. Sasuke's left us, hasn't he? He was just waiting for this." It took her a moment to get the next part out, "So if you guys are in this thing together—if you're going to turn around and stab me in the back too…then you should leave."

She set her jaw and tried to look fierce. Naruto's face had become oddly flat.

"I was coming because you guys were." he said at last, and rolled back away from her, "Because you were my friends." He started fiddling with the lid of the canteen, but didn't open it. He wouldn't meet her eyes, which didn't make any sense because if anything, she should be the one feeling ashamed—

She didn't, though. She felt numb and practical and cold. "Tell me," she ordered, but backed away from him, feeling that perhaps now was not the time for cuddling or friendship, "Tell me why you heal so fast. Tell me why Sasuke's leaving." Her hands were shaking. She sat on them, a weird recklessness settling in. She liked this new her; this new, reserved, hard Sakura, the one who didn't get caught up with silly boys or allowed herself to be stabbed in the back.

Naruto did look at her then, uncertainty bordering on fear flashing through his face. She was sure, from his expression, that he was going to object, but then seemed to reserve judgment. He breathed in carefully, "Okay, I'll tell you. But first—you need to tell me why _you_ wanted to cross over."

"Because I was tired of being alone. Because you're all I've got. And—and I guess because of Sasuke. You too, but mostly him."

It felt weird to say it. It felt odd to bear her soul to this boy in such an offhand, uncaring way.

"You—" Naruto's eyes were wide, but not totally surprised, "You loved him?"

Sakura shrugged. There wasn't much point in lying. "I…kinda? I don't know. Yes."

"…You _did_?"

Sakura's face twisted. "He wasn't the person I thought he was."

Naruto was quiet for a second. He was still fiddling with his canteen. "What'll you do if we see him again?"

She stilled, running over the possibilities in her head, letting the loose earth slip through her fingers. She smiled brutally, eyes burning, "I don't know. I think I'll beat the shit out of him."

Naruto hacked something that was part-laugh, part snort, and then sat up carefully. "Yeah, me too…" he smiled up at the sky wearily, "We're sneaking over, aren't we?"

"Yeah." Sakura nodded firmly, "I am, at least."

"I'm coming with you." Naruto said immediately. She had to smile, a little warmth cracking through her smooth coldness.

"I know—thank you. Now _tell me_ what you two have been hiding."

He had obviously been hoping that she would forget about their deal.

"Okay," he began shakily, "But—you have to promise you aren't going to hate me."

"I don't think I will," Sakura said uncertainly. Naruto sent her a pained smile, and began.

"I wasn't…born. Not like you and Sasuke—well, I guess Sasuke's a bad example too, but—" he cut off, digging furrows in the dirt with anxious, restless fingers. "I was…built."

"Built?" Sakura repeated, a little sick suspicion settling in, "By the military?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "I was supposed to be a weapon. A new breed of soldier. I was one of nine."

He looked down at his hands, "Only me and one other kid survived. I've never met him—I think he was too crazy for them to let out." Naruto shivered a little, like he was trying to shake off a bad memory.

Sakura nodded slowly, trying to understand, "So…how were you 'built?'"

"I'm not all human," Naruto said quietly. "They took animal DNA and fused it with mine. Two different sets of DNA…doesn't mix well. That's why I heal so quickly." He reached over and took her hand, putting it flat on his chest. She could feel his heart beating under her fingertips—it was racing at least twice as quickly as her own.

"Everything inside of me speeds up," he explained, "Accelerated healing. Better vision, faster growing nails and teeth—" he opened his mouth to show her the long, pointed incisors. "My muscle memory is better. I can take more damage and hit harder—I don't think I'll ever run out of energy."

He smiled then, wanly, "Until my expiration date, I mean."

Sakura didn't know much about cross-species mixing, but she knew that no one could have a heart beating so quickly for so long. "Your body is going to give out, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Naruto sighed, "I'll probably die when I'm about forty. Which is, you know, convenient. That's when I'd have reached an age too old to be of any convenience anymore."

A few days ago, she might have cried or screamed for him. Now, she could only nod numbly.

"…It isn't fair," she said quietly, and took her hand back slowly, "I—I hate them."

And in that moment, her control slipped enough for her to feel how angry she should have felt—how badly she wanted to kill the person who had done such a thing to her friend.

"Sasuke, too," Naruto added, "He was…kind of like me. But not. He doesn't have any foreign DNA mixed in…they just fixed him. Surgery. He's got this weird eye thing, see? They're implants for combat and crap. Some kind of muscle-copy, monkey-see-monkey-do shit."

"Okay." Sakura checked the horizon, found the sun still high. It must have been about three in the afternoon. "That still doesn't explain—"

"Sasuke was a weapon," Naruto broke off, and he was suddenly speaking in a rush, as though he had been longing to tell her this from the beginning, "But he wasn't an experiment like me. His type of enhancements had been tested before. There were loads of them, hundreds of soldiers with the same physical features. They were the top soldiers—the Uchihas. There was this one kid, right? He was good. He was wicked good. He was even better than you on an X-board—and he can probably shoot better than Sasuke can." Naruto swallowed. A little tinge of foreboding began to creep into her mind. She knew this would end badly. She knew that—

"His name was Itachi. He was like Sasuke's older brother—they might have been, actually. It doesn't matter. He turned traitor." The whisker-scars on Naruto's face were growing wider, his teeth lengthening, his pupils narrowing. She watched, afraid and fascinated.

"He killed them all."

"…And now, Sasuke's trying to kill him," Sakura guessed quietly. Naruto nodded. She glanced down at her feet. Neither of them said anything for a minute.

"I don't hate you." she said softly, and felt like crying at his relieved sigh. "I don't think I hate him anymore either. But I still want to beat the shit out of him."

"He needs it," Naruto agreed. Sakura swallowed, and glanced up at him fiercely.

"So let's get him back."

Naruto grinned, and then froze.

He lunged at Sakura, snapping one of the guns out of her belt and, ignoring her yelps, levered himself out of the trench.

The figure limping in their direction stilled—and then threw themselves flat to the ground, scrabbling among the bodies for a weapon or a means of escape. Naruto fired once, missing by a good five feet, and shot towards her, distantly aware that Sakura was trailing him.

It was a girl, he could see now. Maybe a little older than them, about Sasuke's age. Her eyes were wide with fear, the uniform tucked into her combat boots showing off her status—a North. Her eyes crossed, staring down the barrel of Naruto's gun as he drew nearer.

She sprang upright, and nearly fell again as her leg gave out. It must have really been hurting her, but she made some shaky attempt at running anyways.

"Hey!" Sakura yelled, nearly alongside him now, "Stop!"

The girl didn't look like she was going to, but after a moment of consideration, turned around and crouched, making herself as small a target as she could while she fished around.

Naruto stopped and Sakura abruptly rammed into him, sending both of them to the ground. He dropped his gun in surprise—felt something impossibly sharp and slick slice cleanly through his cheek—

A knife. She had hidden a knife in her boot. Of course.

"Freaking—" Sakura rolled off him angrily and shot again, this time hitting the girl's injured leg. She was out of bullets, merely shooting off compact-air missiles—but the impact still had to have been killer.

The North soldier fell to the ground with a choked gasp—tried to get up again—

And found she found she couldn't, as Sakura tackled her, pinning her down. Naruto noticed her wince as she jarred her arm, and rushed over. He kept the gun pointed steadily between the girl-soldier's eyes, flicking the switch to acid.

Several heated seconds passed, before the girl started laughing. It was a wild, feral laugh, more than a little crazy and definitely hysterical. Sakura shifted, survival adrenalin fading from her system. She looked disturbed.

Finally, finally, she stopped. Her body relaxed, chocolate brown eyes opening. She smiled brilliantly, her split lip tearing further as she did so. She didn't seem to care.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Tenten."

The gun trembled in Naruto's hand. It was suddenly much harder to kill her, now that he had seen a display of such emotion and knew her name.

"And you aren't soldiers," she was still talking, ignoring him now to twist back for Sakura, "Are you?"

"Are you?" Sakura returned defensively. Tenten—if that was really her name—sniggered. It was so unnerving that Naruto actually found himself lowering his weapon.

"Hell, no. Well. Maybe," she smirked back up at them, "Just because you're in the army doesn't mean you're a soldier."

"You were press-ganged," Sakura guessed. Naruto watched this interaction silently, mind still on lock-down.

"Not a bad guess," Tenten allowed, and suddenly swore. Sakura had accidentally jostled her leg, "Watch it!"

Sakura ignored her, thinking quickly. If this girl was really an apathetic northerner, than they could probably use her…

"Hey," Sakura tightened her grip on Tenten's wrists to let her know that she meant business, "I've got a deal for you. If you can get us across the northern border, we won't put a hole through your head."

"Gotcha," Tenten nodded without a moment's hesitation, loyalty obviously more towards herself than her country, (which meant that she wasn't completely crazy,) "First thing you'll need to do is change your uniforms." She jerked her chin at a couple of dead northerners several feet from them. Two of them were roughly Naruto and Sakura's size. A snide note crept into Tenten's voice, "I won't look while you're changing."

If Sakura had any reservations about stripping a corpse, she didn't show them. When Naruto was sure his friend wasn't looking, he pressed his palms together—a gesture he had seen at a couple of religious ceremonies, and hoped that the gesture would mean something, even if he had no idea what it was for.

Tenten saw, even if Sakura didn't. It was this action that made her reconsider her plan to kill them—and actually contemplate keeping her word. They weren't really a threat—just a couple of kids who seemed to be looking for something. And it wasn't like anyone even cared who won the war anymore…

She pressed a cheap silver cross to her lips, then shoved it back beneath her uniform. They could discuss religion later. The sun was setting—it was probably dim enough for them to cross the border with minimum confrontation.

And besides, she had a couple of favors to call on.

* * *

With the two girls on either side of him, Naruto managed a fairly steady coarse. He was getting better at it; halfway through the journey he wasn't clinging to either of them and could tentatively fly on his own. Sakura kept an eye on him anyways—falling fifty feet would kill him, animal DNA or not.

"Hang on," Tenten swerved to a halt. Sakura did the same. Naruto sped past the two of them, floundering, and 'stopped' by intentionally jumping off his board, letting it catch him, and giving Sakura a heart attack in the process.

Sakura glanced around in frustration. They had to be over the border by now—really, this was just ridiculous. She opened her mouth irritably, "What's up?"

"Someone's coming," Naruto hissed, squinting at a dark speck that was rapidly growing. "We should hide!"

"Nah," Tenten smiled funnily, eyes a little predatory, "We don't need to. That's Neji."

"Who?"

"He owes me," Tenten said simply, and sat down on her board, legs dangling loosely, "And he's a sucker for younger girls." She sent Sakura a contemptuous smirk, "So, how about it? You up for a little North-style action?"

With a final, free laugh, Tenten began playing with her knife. Sakura and Naruto both decided that something was seriously wrong with her.

They weren't wrong.

* * *

Neji turned out to be a tall, harsh looking young man of about eighteen, with eyes the same shade of creepy as Hinata's.

Tenten had laid down flat on her board, legs, arms and head all dangling over the edge. Neji slowed down, fifty feet from them, and edged forwards slowly. He was a good head taller than her, Sakura guessed, black uniform hanging loose around his arms around his legs and arms, tight around her torso. Custom fit, obviously tailored for a wealthy person—

"You take care of it," Tenten yawned, "My leg hurts like a bitch."

Neji scowled at her, white eyes almost red in the dying sun, "You—"

"_Get out_!" Sakura yelled suddenly, and leapt for Naruto's board. She wouldn't have made it, if he hadn't grabbed her wrist at the last moment and hauled her upright, nearly dislocating her shoulder in the process. She was already shoving him to the side, stamping down on the motor furiously. Naruto wobbled, and seized her around the waist as they lurched into the air.

Below them, Tenten swore loudly, scrambling painfully back onto her board and powering up, just behind Neji.

Sakura bit her lip savagely, and the sky was bleeding dizzily into her mind as she rushed up and for just a second she forgot—stretched up a hand, and reached for the sky.

Naruto pushed them both over the edge, and they hurtled past Neji, a spray from his acid-gun burning her hair. Naruto's board was coded to his grippers, and caught him quickly—but there was a flash of silver when Tenten threw her knife, jamming the engine and then—

Falling was an interesting experience. It happened so quickly that she forget to be afraid—and for a second, for a second she was able to imagine what it would be like to die. How easy it would be to relinquish her life and fall like this—just like this—forever.

"Gotcha—" Tenten made a sharp, high noise as she caught the two of them awkwardly, arms wrapping around Naruto's middle, snapping them both to a standstill with a lurch. Sakura's jaw snapped down, and her mouth filled with iron as she nearly bit through her tongue. She spat, world spinning, and struggled furiously—breaking free of Tenten's grip and—

"Hey." Neji had his laser powered up and pointed straight between her eyes, barely an inch away. Her forehead burned, scorched by the acid, and she shut her eyes tightly.

"Naruto, _run_!"

Naruto jerked a little at the raw fear in Sakura's voice, and then fell still when Tenten pressed her knife blade-flat against his throat. He still wasn't sure what was going on—hadn't Tenten been their friend? Weren't they going to get across—

For a second, nobody moved.

"Ugh," he could feel Tenten's leg shudder, pressed up against the back of his knee. Neji didn't tear his eyes from Sakura's face, but Naruto had the impression he was watching them anyways.

"What's the damage?"

"Ripped some muscles," Tenten gritted out, "Got a chunk taken out by my knee—but I was planning on exercising that off, anyways—"

"Tenten," Neji interrupted darkly, obviously not amused. Tenten subtly leaned a little of her weight on Naruto's shoulder. His mind was oddly blank, on the lockdown. Tenten sighed gustily, ruffling the hairs at the nape of his neck.

"Right, right…got hit with comp-air, so there's going to be some bruising." She had shifted her weight noticeably by this point—even if her voice was steady, it must have really been hurting her.

Sakura was so close that he could've embraced her. She was locked in place, back to him; obviously still waiting for Neji's shot. Her fingers twisted slowly, into something like the alphabet, sign-language style.

Naruto squinted, trying not to be too obvious.

K…something…and another letter, twice.

"We'll get you a doctor, when we get back." Neji dismissed coldly, and reverted his attention to Sakura.

"South-side, right? Do they know anything?"

"They aren't even in the army." Tenten snorted. She didn't sound like the bubbly, carefree girl they had met on the battle field earlier. Her voice had shifted, becoming flat and almost inhumanly practical.

Slowly, Naruto began to work it out. Tenten hadn't ever meant to take them across the border—this whole thing had been a trap. She had been injured and outnumbered—the only logical option would be to buy herself some time, and wait for backup.

_Well, we're screwed._ Naruto thought, and tried to remember his sign language.

"So, can we kill them?" Neji called to Tenten. Sakura's eyes flew open, panicked. She hadn't considered that they'd outright shoot them—she thought they might have been taken as prisoners of war, or something—

"Eh," Tenten rolled her shoulders back, seeming more machine than human, "The girl's the leader. We'll take her in, see if she knows anything."

"Fine," Neji reached out, grabbed Sakura's arm, and flipped her around smoothly, pulling her onto his board as he did so, so that they were back-to-front. He kept the gun by her temple.

"Kill him."

* * *

"Did you tell him?" Hinata asked quietly. She had stayed awake, huddled inside her too-big clothes, face pale as her eyes. She looked a little like a ghost.

But Hinata always looked like that—like she had one foot in the other world. Ino turned away, the quiet elation already slipping away.

"Tell him what?" she bluffed, because lying was easier.

Her breath misted when she exhaled—it was hardly any warmer inside than it was out. Her head was spinning with the sickness of life, and nothing was perfect.

When Hinata breathed, the air around her kept from steaming.

"About the baby," she was curled on the chair Sasuke had stolen, dark hair hanging limp and lifeless. She looked like she was dying. "His baby."

"It might not be his." Ino snapped. She switched on the tap, cupping the rusty water in her hands, "You know? He wasn't exactly my one and only."

Hinata pressed nearly bloodless lips together, and fell silent. Ino ignored the twitch of guilt, and ran water-frozen hands back through her bangs, pulling her hair away in a sloppy bun.

"Are you afraid?" Hinata pressed uncharacteristically. Ino spun, catching sight of something hesitating and fierce in Hinata's expression, and though no color rose to the small girl's marble cheeks, she was undoubtedly angry.

"I-I'm not." Ino stammered. She blinked then, shocked at her own meekness, "What's your problem?"

"You are," Hinata's eyes widened, "You're scared he'll leave you."

"I am _not_," Ino didn't even have to lie then, but the anger was still there, roaring through her lungs and body, demanding she strike out. The room was suddenly too small, and suffocating so, with a carpet of sleeping bags and a crappy old chair as the only furniture. Hinata had shrunken when she raised her voice, but wasn't backing down.

"So why aren't you telling him?" she demanded, "Doesn't he have a right to know?"

"Just _shut up_!" Ino tore, "Why do you even _care_?! Stop acting like you're—" she cut herself off, forbidden words lodging in her throat. She turned away, backhanding angry tears from her eyes before they had the change to free fall.

"Like I'm what?" Hinata whispered after a pause. Her voice was trembling—and Ino knew that if she turned around, the other girl would be crying as well.

"I don't know." Ino rasped. She turned brusquely, kicking her way into the sleeping bags. "I'm going to sleep."

She turned on her side and shut her eyes firmly, curled around the life she carried.

Hinata remained the only one standing, hands knotted, expression hidden behind shadows as the night embraced its favorite child.

* * *

"Kill him."

Sakura had opened her mouth even before registering doing so—and she was talking now, saying things that she knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't think of anything else and time was like a shattered hourglass.

"Do you know Hinata?"

Shoulder blade to his chest, she could feel Neji's breathing hitch, and noticed the ugly thing that flickered across Tenten's face that even the perfect Hyuuga eyes missed.

Naruto's eyes were a shade of blue too perfect for her meet, and so she looked instead at the ground, a dizzying drop away.

_Don't screw this up,_ Sakura thought frantically, and began talking.

"She has the same eyes as you. That's genetic engineering, isn't it? Why're you on different sides, then?"

"I wonder," Neji muttered quietly, sharp fingers digging into her shoulder, "She's on the South-side, then?"

Sakura bit her lip. Had she already given away too much?

"You're looking for her, aren't you?" she guessed. Tenten sighed quietly, too softly for Neji or Sakura to hear, but loud enough for Naruto. Carefully, he snuck a glance—

She looked…sad.

"If you kill Naruto," Sakura continued hurriedly, "I'll bite my tongue off. It's already bleeding, see? I'll bleed to death. Or I could just jump. And then you won't know where she is."

"Then we'll ask him," Neji snarled. She was close enough to feel the tension he was radiating, and bit down a smile. That was good.

"He doesn't know," she lied quickly. "Kill either one of us, and you'll never find her. Of course," she pushed her luck then, bluffing, "If you take us back and hand us over for torture, everyone will know. I'll tell them all. And they'll get to her before you do."

"Don't play games with me," Neji ordered her, flatly, but Sakura knew she had him.

"Neji…?" Tenten called quietly, "Let's take them back over."

After a moment, Neji took the gun from her temple. "Fine," he pushed Sakura to the edge of the board, "But if you're lying," he fixed Sakura with the emptiest glare she had ever seen, "Then we really will kill you."

* * *

"I didn't know you were a poet," Ino smiled. She ran her finger tips over the words, smudging the wet ink and blackening her hands. She grinned again at that, wryly, and straightened. Shikamaru tilted his head, studying her over his shoulder.

"I'm not." He said quietly, and rolled up the paper, crumpling it out of existence. Ino frowned, catching his wrist and uncurling his fingers.

"Don't do that, stupid. I liked it."

"It won't ever finish." Shikamaru shrugged, "Might as well get rid of it."

"I think that's romantic," Ino snapped haughtily, and wrenched the slightly torn paper away from him, "It never dies, does it?"

He just looked at her a second, all watching eyes and silent expression. She looked away, busying herself with flattening out the paper.

They had broken into an empty building, run up to the roof, and sat there now, with their legs dangling over the edge. The sky was a soft shade of grey, washing out the too-bright colors.

"Everything ends," Shikamaru said suddenly, and gave her that funny little smile, "It just does."

Ino sighed, "Don't be so melodramatic." She had the paper smoothed out over her thighs, and bent over it protectively when the wind made to snatch it away. It was quiet now, no one came out during the day in the red-light districts.

"You should talk," Shikamaru snorted, and lit a cigarette, just to watch it burn a tiny sun in the sky.

Ino just looked at him, and tried to commit it all to memory. Every imperfection—the monochrome skies, crumpled artwork, and cigarette suns. She wanted to sink with it, and shiver with it, inside.

"When were you going to tell me?" he asked softly, still looking towards the clouds, their misty light softening the gold from his face. Ino thought her heart might've stopped. He knew. He knew. Oh God—

"What?" she lied again without realizing it, scrabbling frantically for some remainder of calm.

The sun went out.

* * *

The house that Neji led them to was…actually a house. It confirmed Sakura's suspicions that Neji was either extremely wealthy, or part of a family that was extremely wealthy. Tenten had been left to guard them, injured leg and all, while Neji took a nap. The three sat in awkward silence, Tenten stretched out on the couch, Naruto and Sakura back-to-back on the floor.

"Sorry I stabbed you guys in the back," Tenten sighed, apparently having suddenly remembered this little tidbit of information. Naruto glared at her, while Sakura just shrugged.

"It's okay. I get it."

"Yeah," Tenten grimaced as she lowered herself to the floor, so that they were eye level. "Not anything personal. Well—maybe a little—you did shoot me in the leg, after all."

"Why does—" Sakura began awkwardly, "What does Neji want with Hinata?"

Tenten was suddenly suspicious, "I thought you said you knew her," she asked shrewdly. Sakura hastened to reassure her.

"We do. Just not very well." She swallowed, and tried not to feel too guilty for selling Hinata out. She looked an awful lot like Neji—so maybe his intentions were totally good? If worst came to worst, they would just have to wait for a chance to knock the two North-kids out, and run.

"Oh," Tenten's gaze flicked away, one corner of her mouth pulling to the side grimly, "I'll let Neji tell you."

"Why're you with a guy like that?" Naruto burst out, suddenly, "You—you're a lot nicer than he is."

Tenten froze, startled. "I'm..." she grinned, more than a little awkward, but didn't meet Naruto's eyes. "I'm not very nice. I just do what I'm told."

"So why don't you leave?" Naruto demanded, "You're better than that. You don't like killing people, do you?!"

"Who _likes_ killing people?!" Tenten returned, "I'm just—I'm trying to keep him alive."

"Who, Neji?" Sakura burst, incredulous. Tenten sighed.

"He isn't that bad—"

"He's a complete asshole," Naruto pointed out, with such a blatant disregard for tact, that Sakura could have clobbered him. Tenten giggled.

"Yeah. He is." She met their eyes then, steadily, "But I will never let him die alone."

* * *

"Where is he?!" Sasuke yelled angrily, pale face bleached stark in his fury. The woman tensed, and looked towards him with reproachful, defensive eyes.

"How should I know?" Her cool, heavy lidded face was slightly flushed, perhaps in anger, "We weren't especially close."

Other tenants were poking their heads out, along the hallway, black stares all around. One of them, a man with shocking violet eyes and bloody wrists cursed viciously, and slammed the door shut again with enough force to shake the landing. The others stayed to watch.

"WHERE _IS_ HE?!" Sasuke screamed, seeing her lies in the shift of her eyes, the fast twitch of her features.

"Hey," the woman snarled now, suddenly vicious, "Don't make me repeat myself, asshole. I already said he's gone."

"Konan," another man shouldered his way into Sasuke's vision, "What is it?"

"Just a kid," Konan muttered, "I can take care of him, alright?"

"What an idiot, yeah?" a blond man down the hall muttered, "Rip his face off."

The man in front of Sasuke was heavily pierced, and clad all in black. He shot the blond a silencing glance, and returned his attention to Sasuke.

"I don't care who you are," he said softly, "But you _are_ going to die."

"Where's Itachi?" Sasuke insisted rudely. The other man narrowed his eyes, considering.

"I see. You're an Uchiha, aren't you?" his gaze lingered for a moment on Sasuke's crimson irises, "Itachi is of no concern to you. Unless you think that you are somehow strong enough to defeat us, eight to one."

Sasuke bared his teeth, gaze flicking from one face to the next as he tensed, hand flashing to the knife at his hip—

"Four," a mocking, cocky voice called, "It's eight to _four_."

"Just do what we tell you to," Neji instructed coldly. He had a tight grip on Sakura's left hand, and Tenten on Naruto's, "Don't try to get them on your side. You're safer with us."

They were at the terminal, about to be missile-launched across the border. It was the only method of safe transport between the two areas, reserved only for high-paying family visits.

Just ahead of them, a pregnant woman was being pushed into a stall, guards demanding a strip search. Her husband began screaming hysterically, louder even than the toddler he was carrying.

Sakura looked away, and thought that Neji's grip might have tightened around her hand, just briefly. A man jostled her arm briefly, and was pulling her away from Neji in a second. Her eyes caught on the scratched, titanium badge he had pinned to his chest pocket.

"Where are your papers?" he demanded, voice slightly accented. Sakura froze—the minute she opened her mouth, he'd pick up on her own, South-side accent and—

"They're here," Neji shoved the papers into the man's hand electric-fast, scowling, "I thought you checked us up ahead?"

The guard scowled, and handed the papers back to Sakura. She took them almost too fast, though he didn't seem to notice.

A dull panic was beginning to set in. There was no way. There was absolutely no way she and Naruto would be able to get out of here. They were going back to square one—and selling Hinata out in the process.

She glanced over her shoulder, half hoping for a familiar splotch of inky hair, and wanted to slap herself.

_He isn't coming_, Sakura bit her lip, _He doesn't care_. She looked over at Naruto and tried to smile. He pulled a face at Tenten, more for her benefit, and Sakura smiled painfully.

Shit.

* * *

"Four," a mocking, cocky voice called, "It's eight to _four_."

A young man was leaning against the staircase banister, looking lazily elegant, his silver hair chopped roughly around his chin.

When he grinned, Sasuke saw how pointed his teeth were.

He almost sighed.

Heavy steps preceding him, a giant of a man came up the stairs, blinking owlishly in the dim, waxy yellow light. "Hullo, Sasuke,"

"Juugo, Suigetsu," Sasuke greeted flatly, "And where's Karin?"

There was a soft chink of a round of bullets being loaded into a chamber, "Ahead of all you bastards," the redhead sniffed. Sasuke whirled around to face her, as did everyone else. She had an arm hooked almost lovingly around Konan's shoulders, her small handgun resting just under her jaw.

Karin's smile could have killed, "_Hey_, Sasuke! You've gotten taller!"

"What are you doing," Pein asked softly, with enough venom laced through his voice to make Karin's smile drop, "To my partner?"

Her eyes widened slightly behind her glasses, before she threw the sneer back onto her face. "What's it look like?"

"So dirty," Suigetsu tutted, squinting his eyes through the bazooka's scope, "Taking hostages. Tch."

Karin glowered darkly, and opened her mouth to say something before the blond man started laughing.

"You're pretty cocky, yeah?" he smiled dangerously, pushing his hair out of his eyes in a smooth, practiced movement. His face was half-robot.

"Get out of here," Sasuke snapped angrily, whirling around to face Suigetsu, "This is _my_ fight, I didn't ask you to but in—"

A small cannon ball shot within centimeters of his left ear, tearing a hole through the wall and showering Sasuke with bits of plaster.

"Stop telling me what to do, O fearless leader," Suigetsu snarled candidly, even as Karin screeched.

"Ex-leader. Really, Sasuke, deserting on us was so not cool." Karin sighed grumpily, her hair flip all sass.

"We left too," Juugo pointed out.

Sasuke opened his mouth furiously, and was cut off as Juugo threw him into a wall, knocking the breath from his lungs even as he felt the sheen of blades passing just through where he had been standing, and the snick of cut hair. The red head was scowling and snarling something nasty, finders dancing through the air, magnets at his fingertips shooting deadly knives through the air in some parody of grace.

Sasuke rolled out of the way, and there was a sharp bang from Karin's gun, the louder woosh from Suigetsu's bazooka until the other boy gave it up entirely, reaching for his partner and Juugo had his huge hands wrapped around some half-albino's throat as he slowly squeezed—

Sasuke's foot rolled over something, and her almost tripped down the stairs, catching hold of the blond man's ponytail and eliciting a shriek of anger that soon dissolved to laughter.

He turned.

_ticktickticktick…_

* * *

Sakura didn't think. She shut off her brain and let years of hard survival guide her fingers into Neji's pockets before drawing them to the head of the line, pulling Naruto along with her and shoving him in front.

By the time Neji realized she had been the one to hand Naruto his papers, she was already having her own examined, grabbing her friend's hand and tugging him through the gate at a walk too fast, running in the slowest sense of the word, heart hammering in her ears.

She looked back just once.

Tenten was watching them silently, hands shoved into a grey hoodie as she tracked them, gaze predatory. _I will find you._

Neji could be heard swearing, his handsome face contorting in anger even as a guard laid an arm on his chest and shoved him into the stall, the mass behind them spiraling into screams.

She dumped his and Tenten's passports in the nearest incinerator, but kept the fakes they had made for her and Naruto.

"Sakura—" Naruto drew in a fast gasp, his upper lip sweaty, "We gotta go. Before they can get out and call a lock down."

"Yeah," Sakura nodded shakily. Her hands were shuddering with adrenaline even as she tried to think—think like Sasuke would—

"Security. We'll use the security exits—" even as she said it her eyes flicked to the discreet doors, the glowing key card slots—

"Shit…" she spun, tilting her head around the corner and watching as the guards swarmed over the mass of hysterical civilians—bringing out the dogs—

She couldn't see Neji or Tenten. That didn't mean that they weren't there, though.

Sakura turned around, and pulled the fire alarm, grabbed Naruto's arm, and leapt back into the mass of screams, bells shrieking all around them.

She thought she might have seen Tenten, just for an instant. The older girl held her eyes for an infinite second, and then turned away.

* * *

Shikamaru spat his cigarette out.

She watched it fall several stories, until she lost it among all the rubbish choking the sidewalks.

"Just kidding," Shikamaru got to his feet lazily, offering her a hand. She took it numbly, still staring incredulously into his tired eyes. After a minute he offered her something that was almost a smile.

"It's not like it's my business what you do, or anything," he tilted his head to the side, searching.

She felt like she might have been choking on something, wanted desperately to crystallize him in that imperfect second that was so painful and so raw and so real.

She wanted to smile, but couldn't seem to feel the easy well of deception and make-believe that was always so near her. She wanted to slap him and kiss him and cry into him, until all her tears were shed and she was left cleanly empty.

He dropped her hand, and started to walk away.

She mouthed the word twice before it finally came to life, "Wait…"

He slowed down, just slightly, and looked back, "Do you want me to walk you home? We aren't far from the bakery."

She actually laughed then, horribly, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes and staining her perfect façade.

"I never worked at a bakery shop." She whispered, but so softly that she fooled herself into believing he hadn't heard.

Shikamaru was quiet, and through the rattling force in the cavity of her chest, the one that bent and broke her, she heard him sigh. "What do you want me to do, Ino?" he asked, resignation pulling his features into exhaustion.

She swayed, dizzy with indecision, and wondered what it'd feel like to jump.

"I want you to listen." She hiccupped, and rubbed the palms of her hands up against her wet eyes, "Just listen."

* * *

"Neji," Tenten gave her hair a sharp twist, water seeping through her fingers, "Let's go home. They're gone."

Neji hissed sharply, his shoulder blades cutting into his shirt they stuck out so sharply. With a snap that was almost animal, he slammed his foot into the fence post, again and again, rubber grippers sliding off.

Tenten waited quietly until he was done, hands in pockets and eyes trained onto the ground for grubby pennies.

"She's over there," Neji said finally, "I _know_ she is."

Slowly, Tenten nodded. "Probably. But—she's never coming back, Neji. Just let it go." After a minute without response, Tenten looked up.

Neji's hands were coiled at his sides, his back to her. He was the kind of still found in crouching tigers and silent storms. Tenten bit her lip, and looked back down, fingering her knife absently.

"Look," she said at last, "It's your decision. I'll back you on this. But—can we just report her dead and—"

"No." Neji snapped, and stalked past her, bumping into her shoulder as he passed, colorless as an old movie.

"We're crossing over."

She waited a beat to breath, and then ran after him. "I think I know how."

* * *

"Bang." Deidara whispered.

Sasuke rammed his elbow into the window and curled inwards, hurtling through the glass and plummeting. He caught himself on the third floor's balcony, slipped off and fell again.

The top floor exploded.

The thing he had slipped on had been a grenade—a _grenade_. He didn't know those were even made anymore.

Sasuke lay on the ground and didn't move until he was sure that nothing hurt too badly. He sat up slowly, brushing some of the rubble off of him and getting unsteadily to his feet.

There where whispers coming from the other houses, and people sticking their heads out of alleys to peer curiously, frightfully, at the ruins.

Sasuke bent double and coughed thickly, smearing the blood pooled in the crevices of his lips, before staggering into a run, bangs falling messily across his face.

His left arm was numb, he noticed, and shook it a little, mind racing. Everything had gotten screwed up—and if the mercenaries—they were mercenaries now? God, but they loved to fight—had somehow managed to survive, he wouldn't be able to find them. The Akatsuki would have moved out to hide again, assuming they survived—meaning his source of information was down—

He skidded to a halt halfway down an alley, an empty building on either side. He leaned back against the wall, breathing shakily, still trying to shove some life into his numb arm.

Naruto and Sakura should be back on the south side by now.

He shook the thought away almost as quickly as it had come, and started running again, back three streets to where he had hidden his X-board. He'd wait for night, and then make his way towards the high city. Akatsuki wasn't the only gang Itachi could be with.

* * *

Hinata hugged her knees to her chest, curled in her armchair, and listed all the things she should be doing right now. She should be stealing food or stealing money or making money or—

She bent forward, and sang almost silently to herself.

She wondered if Ino was ever coming back.

She wondered if she could sit here, waiting and wasting away, until she died. Her toes curled, and she pressed herself back more tightly into the chair.

She hated being alone. It made the shadows come alive.

Hinata curled more tightly around herself and waited for Ino to come back, brittle eyelids closing over painfully dry eyes. She wondered, just as she was drifting off into slumber, if this time, she really would disappear.

She woke up when the bombs started dropping.

Hinata jolted upright and tripped clumsily to the window, her breath coming in fast, panicked whimpers. Two blocks over, the ramen stand Sakura worked at became a mushroom cloud—

The ground shook under her feet, building swaying.

Hinata looked around frantically, every instinct screaming at her to run, while all she wanted to do was crawl into her sleeping bag and sleep. If she left—if the building was destroyed, how would she find Ino? How would she—

She had to leave, she told herself firmly, she'd come back and wait afterwards. But—

Hinata raced to the kitchen, shoving all of the money Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto had stored into her pockets, grabbing the stun gun and a butcher's knife, wrapping them hurridly into her sleeping bag with her extra clothes and shoving them into a backpack, heart hammering and eyes dilated, her hands steady as when she had killed—

She ran out of the front door so quickly, she hit the hallway's wall and grasped at it, before racing for the stairs. She fell twice, slide down to the landing, was pushed aside by the other people cramming through the exit, screaming raw and wet and she was pinned up against the wall, a small, teenage girl and she couldn't move—

Hinata took three short, sharp breaths, and stepped outside her body.

* * *

She got through telling him that she was a prostitute, and she got through telling him where she had been, and how much she had missed him. She got through telling him that she used to be a rich girl in a nice neighborhood with a family that sold flowers. She got through all of that.

And now came the hard part.

"I'm sorry I lied to you." she said quietly, when he failed to say anything. After a minute, Shikamaru shrugged.

"Why didn't you tell me? I would have lent you some money." He wouldn't look her in the face, but sounded bone achingly sad. Ino flicked a pebble off the rooftop.

"That wasn't really…the problem. I didn't want you to know. I didn't want you to hate me."

He nodded slowly, "Do you have a disease?"

She shook her head violently, "No. No, I always made them use a condom. And I was—lucky. I guess. I don't know."

She dreamed of cigarette sunlight and soothing smoke and sloppy tangos. Walking barefoot over glass and melting like a date rape drug into swirls of fruity alcohol. She dreamed of days when the sun would come out and the sky would stretch blue forever, and of running with him on the stairways to heaven.

She dreamed of having a family again.

"There's something else."

"What—" Shikamaru broke off abruptly, head cocked to the side and eyes narrowed. Ino blinked.

"What's wrong?" She listened too, straining for—

She could hear a motor humming.

"Airship—let's go," Shikamaru was pulling her to her feet roughly in the next second, dragging her towards the stairs before she had even stood fully. She stumbled, then broke free and ran after him, mind racing as her feet thudded down the steps.

"There's a bomb shelter. In the—the whore house. We can get in there—I think—"

"Okay," Shikamaru paused to kick in the bottom door, and she shot past him, leading the way.

There was a whistle, and the first bomb hit on the other side of the city. She could feel it only faintly, the soft tremors, before the second hit much, much nearer. Two fleets, then, one of them—

Her heart lurched, one of them was by Hinata. She hoped the other girl would remember how to run. The streets were still empty when they were two blocks away, but grew heavier after a minute had passed. People came scrambling out of gutters, alleys, hotels, drainpipes, all of them with possessions slung hastily over one shoulder, pulling their families along behind them.

Ino kicked off her high heels and ran barefoot, Shikamaru just a step behind her, skidding through red lights and clambering frantically over fences.

He wasted ten seconds lifting a five year old over—handing her to Ino before scrambling up himself. The little girl was crying, short black hair sticking to her wet cheeks. Ino set her down on the ground, gave him a hand, and then started running again—

A bomb hit the road thirty feet in front of them, sending a torn slab of cement straight at the little girls head—

Ino didn't realize she'd moved to shield her until she was sledge hammered in the stomach—smashed her backwards onto the ground, the child behind her.

Shikamaru shoved the rubble off her, and pulled her upright again, throwing her arm over his shoulder and running, child following, as her head swam, nausea making her throw up twice before they reached the shelter and scurried inside.

She barely noticed that the whore house had been hit—barely thought of the people who had been sleeping inside. She curled up on the ground as soon as Shikamaru dropped her, shuddering around her crushed insides.

The world abruptly stopped moving, and she knew it was over. Nobody moved for another hour, just in case, until Ino finally sat up and whispered, "Let's go."

Shikamaru opened the door, and the silent child streaked out, running furiously back to wherever she had come from. After a minute, Ino stood—

Her thighs felt slick. For a second, she thought she might have wet herself but—

She was bleeding.

"Oh God—" she whispered, and started shaking again, "Oh…no…"

"Ino?" Shikamaru had left the door half open, just turned, "What up?"

She fainted.

* * *

"We should get help," Tenten said suddenly, her eyes fixed ahead of her wearily. Neji muttered something, his face still pressed into her shoulder as he napped, draped across her shoulders on an X-board. It was technically illegal. But then, Neji was technically one of the highest ranking militia officers around.

If they ever found out he was a genii, both he and Tenten would be executed.

Tenten shook her shoulder, jostling him, "Neji, wake up. I want you to meet my boyfriend."

Neji woke up, "Relationships are strictly prohibited for the good of the mission—" he began to launch into one of his infamous rants—Neji was good for those. Drama queen.

"We should find Gai," Tenten said firmly, interrupting him. Neji's arms tensed around her waist. She braked, and set them both down to the ground, deeming it safer.

"Tenten," Neji said in a voice that he obviously meant to be patronizing. Tenten rolled her eyes and made a grand show of not paying attention—which was exactly how NOT to handle Neji.

He plowed on regardless, "The man's a maniac."

She had nothing to counter that with.

"And—and Lee…"

"Lee's our friend," Tenten said stiffly, and drew herself upright, "Don't underestimate him, Neji. You know he's strong. They both are."

"They're _crazy_," Neji corrected viciously, "They're _losers_."

Tenten raised her eyebrows, "And so you're a what, a winner?" she tilted her head to the side, "What exactly have you won, Neji?"

He glared at her, black disease spreading from his hateful gaze. "We aren't going to them for help."

* * *

It took Hinata two days to find them, or rather, for her to find Shikamaru.

It was a rubble heap, this place. The cities resplendence had dared too high, waxy wings melting into a mess of a mechanical graveyard. She had survived the bombing, of course, though it hurt to think about her own selfishness.

It would have been kinder, to die.

He looked a mess, sweating furiously with dried blood caked under his fingernails and smeared across his cloths. He didn't recognize Hinata—had never met her, had only stepped outside for a smoke 'cause he hadn't slept in days and God, God he was so tired but she wouldn't stop bleeding—

But she could see.

She tapped him quietly on the shoulder and said in a voice that was as soft as the dust coating over her being, "Where's Ino?"

Shikamaru's face stilled quite suddenly, and he sent her a long, appraising look. She could see the way his mouth twitch down and his eyes flicked down—he was going to lie to her.

"Please tell me," Hinata repeated again. Shikamaru fidgeted slightly, and she took a moment to study him. She could see why Ino had liked him—there was a quiet reassurance he seemed to give off, a certain atmosphere that relaxed.

He didn't look very relaxed right now. "What do you want with her?" he asked at last, eyes very brown and very tired, sort of like—

—someone she had known, once.

She could see the ghost of a girl holding his hand and following in step, and wished that she could have that. he'll never know how lucky he is, to have a little bit of soul watching out for him.

She swallows down her disappointment and envy, "She's hurt, isn't she?" she asked softly, and locked eyes with the golden ghost just beyond his shoulder. Ino blinked at her, and smiled in a way that dazzled and defied the laws of light and color, eyes wider than Hinata had ever seen them.

"She's dying," Shikamaru said finally, with his face cast shamefully to the side, and then sunk down into himself, though he remained standing. He didn't cry, or at least, not physically, but the spirit stepped forward and brushed away the invisible tears lovingly, smiling sadly.

Hinata couldn't stand to look at such an intimate scene, couldn't help but hate her eyes.

Shikamaru looked towards her searchingly, and then began unsteadily, "She's…she was…I think she was pregnant."

Something ached within her, but Hinata nods, "I know."

Something hurt flickered across his features, before he wipes it clean again, "Was she going to keep it?"

Hinata nodded, because she didn't know what else to say.

Shikamaru swore quietly, "That moron…" but it's the broken kind of anger, not the fiery kind, and Hinata knew that he was all soul. That he cared more than he knew.

"I'll help her," she said finally, and followed behind him meekly, planning.

* * *

"Hey," Naruto shook Sakura awake, "Hey, Sakura, we gotta go."

Sakura cracked an eye open, stretching stiffly. She had slept sitting up, leaning back against a wall while Naruto watched. He was poking a head up over the roofs, grinning almost savagely.

"Naruto, we can't. I told you, we aren't moving until sunrise." She said grumpily, and sat on her hands to warm them up. Naruto barely spared her a glance.

"No, we gotta go now. It's Sasuke."

She could suddenly hear every individual drop of dew splashing down from the sweating weeds that grew thick as grass in the concrete's cracks. She got to her feet awkwardly, tripping forward and grabbing the offered hand. Naruto pulled her up onto the low roof with him, the long, desolate city flat and straight before them.

"I can smell him," Naruto said eagerly, face suddenly too-intent, almost bestial. "He's close. He's bleeding."

Sakura scanned the rooftops carefully, "You sure? Where is he?"

Naruto cocked his head to the side, inhaling very slowly and very deeply as he turned in a smooth circle—before pointing.

"_There_," he took off running suddenly at a full sprint—she had to race to just keep up with him, and was exhausted after seconds.

"Naruto—wait—_wait_, what if he's with someone?" she stopped, just managing to grab the sleeve of his jacket and _pull_ him to a standstill. "Can you please think this through? We should watch him, make sure he's on our side—"

"Of _course_ he's on our side," Naruto snapped impatiently, "He's _Sasuke_." He looked angry, "Don't you get it?!"

"I do!" Sakura stammered, still fighting for breath, "But I—I'm not _stupid_—I don't…God, Naruto, I don't just _trust_ people like that, okay? I trust you a hell of a lot more than him!"

Naruto set his jaw squarely, looking stubborn. "He's just Sasuke," he said finally, and sprang to the next roof.

* * *

Temari smoothed down her shirt, and made sure her hair was pulled back neat and tight against her skull, before knocking twice on the old-school-movie door. She kept her face closed and eyes steady. This was who she was. She was not a woman. She was not pretending to be a man, either—that was just stupid.

She was a soldier.

The door was opened by a lower rank officer, one who made a hasty bow when he caught sight of her. She tucked her chin down so slightly it was almost rude before breezing inside.

He always surprised her—that sardonic, cruel face with its twin yellow eyes and a gruesome gash of a mouth.

"Temari," he inclined his head politely towards a chair. She sat tensely, her hands wanting to fidget. She mentally ordered them limp, and kept her face straight.

"Yes sir," she bowed, "I was sent here by the commanding general, to report and request finances."

"Excellent," Orochimaru's smile widened in a way that hinted at some sort of malicious joke—one she was not privy to. Temari bit her tongue and bowed again.

"Sir, we gained two miles of land in the last week, and our troops continue to advance. Casualties in last Sunday's battle were unusually high—the South side has started sending out more untrained troops.

"How delightful," Orochimaru chuckled, "Tell me, have you found anymore genii's?"

Temari worked at her bottom lip, choosing her words carefully, "Possibly, sir. Several soldiers reported seeing one of the Uchiha's during combat—probably Sasuke. He was reportedly seen with two others—one of whom also appears to be a genii."

Orochimaru's lips spread further, "Well now, that is good news…my Sasuke, hm? I suppose he's here for his brother."

"I wouldn't know, sir," Temari said when he paused. Orochimaru tapped two pale fingers against his chin.

"You have brothers as well, do you not, Temari?"

Temari could feel the sudden desire to crush, tear, rip into this man spin through her, spiraling through her chest and throbbing just behind her eyes.

She kept her lips locked together and nodded.

Orochimaru made a soft, smooth noise of amusement. "Ah, yes. I remember now. The younger one is in captivity, isn't he?"

She bowed her head, hating herself for it and hating Gaara even more, a kind of hatred that is born from childish terror. Slowly, she began to form the words.

"He is, sir," she said at long last, "The commanding general requests another twenty thousand for covering rations, with all due respect to yourself."

Orochimaru waved a hand, "Yes, yes. Of course."

She waited to see if there was anything more he was going to say, before turning curtly on her heel and walking out as quickly as she could.

She didn't miss his last call, even as the door surged shut, "We should chat again, sometime."

* * *

Tenten crept up towards the dojo, and rapped smartly on the door. She checked her knife twice, and then stepped out of the way.

There was the sound of running feet, and then someone kicked the door a good ten feet out into the air, "A CHALLENGER!" someone yelled enthusiastically, and skidded into the space Tenten had been standing previously.

She gave a little cough, "Hi, Lee."

Lee stared at her just long enough to make her feel awkward, before bursting into tears. "Tenten!" Lee wailed, and crushed her into the heartiest bear hug she had ever experienced. Lee sobbed into her shoulder, while Tenten made high pitched wails.

"Lee—I—down!" she squeaked, and seriously thought that her spleen, whatever it was, had probably left the world of the living.

"LEE," a gigantic voice boomed, "BE CAREFUL NOT TO CRUSH SUCH A DELICATE FLOWER!"

Her old sensei kicked down what remained of the door frame, and the entire joke of a building collapsed.

_Well_, Tenten thought, resigned, _There goes mission espionage._

From the corner of her eye, she could see a vaguely Neji-ish figure stomping grumpily up the hill, glaring at her for all his worth. She diverted her eyes hastily, even as Lee set her back on the ground, whereupon she nearly fell over.

"TENTEN, MY HEART BURSTS TO SEE YOU AGAIN! NOTHING COULD MAKE ME HAPPIER THAN—NEJI TOO?!" Lee looked like he was about to die from excitement.

She tried to thank him, but ended up just moaning.

"Can…Can I come in?" she massaged her ribs, and cast another furtive glance behind her shoulder towards Neji, who was now blatantly running up the hill's path towards her, making angry little gestures.

Her old sensei began to nod, and then gasped loudly, horrified. He clocked Lee over the head, "LEE, YOUR YOUTH HAS GOTTEN THE BETTER OF YOU! WE HAVE LOST OUR DOJO!"

Lee looked like the world had just ended, and he would gladly have let Gai offer him as a sacrifice to the Gods in that instant, "I APOLOGIZE WITH THE SORROW OF A THOUSAND WEEPING FLOWERS—"

"Look, it's fine," Tenten squirmed in between them, "Just hide me."

She was dubious that standing behind two spandex clad man would provide her with adequate protection, but was determined to remain optimistic. "Tell Neji I'm not here," she whispered, and peered around Lee's knee. Lee looked shocked.

"I could never deceive my rival!" he stage-whispered, scandalized—just as Neji finally reached the mountain's summit and, panting, staggered towards them.

He stopped a safe distance away from Gai and Lee, suddenly realizing the trap he had walked into. He had been so set on catching Tenten, that he had forgotten his original objective had been to avoid their former teammates in the first place.

Neji began backing away slowly, and sent Tenten a look that promised several thousand years of pain.

She waved back.

* * *

Sasuke slipped off the board and fell on his numb arm. A couple of bricks crumbled down from the edge he had fallen on—he rolled away hastily, swearing thickly, and suddenly felt very tired.

His board clattered down several streets down—he did his best to memorize its position, and hoped no one would take it. Doubtful.

He glared hatefully at the wavering full moon, curled over his crooked arm, tongue pressed up against his teeth.

"Hey, bastard," there were footsteps. Much too close—almost on top of him now, and Sasuke looked up jerkily, surprised but not shocked.

Naruto had his hands curled into fists, like he was waiting for a fight. Sasuke shifted. Naruto twitched.

For a moment, the two of them just looked at one another. Naruto broke it to glance back over his shoulder and, apparently deciding it safe enough, bent down to Sasuke's ear.

"If you leave again, I'll break your legs and make you walk back on them," Naruto threatened with a snarl. Sasuke made a dismissive, cocky noise, which was all he could do in such a state.

"I'm not your boyfriend, moron," he said coolly.

Naruto kicked him in the stomach—hard—and then Sasuke had his thumbs up in the other boy's eyes, like an assassin, one knee grinding into Naruto's spine even as Naruto grabbed him by the hair and flung Sasuke away, ripping at his scalp.

Panting, his eyes stinging from the pain, Sasuke shook his arm into life and lunged again…

Sakura smacked the back of Naruto's head, "You idiot," she hissed angrily, her breathing fast and erratic, tinged with a hysteria she couldn't write off as muscle fatigue. She spun around, eyes green and sharper than he had remembered, flashing in a way that made Sasuke want to press his fingers to them, and see if they'd bleed.

"You're a—" Sakura trailed off, and ran a fast hand over the backs of her eyes with a sniff. Naruto set a hand on her shoulder, only to have it shrugged off. Sakura sniffed. "You're a—your arm's broken."

Sasuke frowned at her, and shook it experimentally. The metal wires laced through his bones meant it could still move, though he understood the numbness to be a built in anesthetic now. It was good to know, at least—made slightly more sense.

Now Sakura faced the great decision of healing him or helping Naruto break his other arm.

She did neither. Instead, she turned around and walked away. When she was sure her voice would be steady, she called, "Naruto, keep an eye on him. And don't fight. I'll be back in a second."

The two boys watched her scramble back down the roof, before turning back to one another. Sasuke looked disinterested. Naruto took several breaths of night, and willed himself to be half so cool—it didn't work.

He sat down by Sasuke roughly, and fiddled with his shoes. Sasuke was looking interestedly at his obviously broken limb.

Naruto chewed on his tongue. It was weird, not knowing what to say. "You're still our friend, ri—?" he began to blurt out, but was interrupted by Sasuke's flat look.

"Set my arm, Naruto. Hurry up so that I can get rid of you two on the South-side."

Naruto jumped to his feet, his whole body vibrating, "Why are you running away?!"

"I'm not," Sasuke snapped curtly, "I don't have anything to run _from_."

For a second Naruto really did consider breaking his other arm. He set the left one instead, wishing bitterly that Sasuke weren't so doped up, maybe would have screamed a little.

"We aren't leaving you until you come back with us," Naruto said finally, stubbornly, and Sasuke closed his eyes.

"You'll slow me down." He said at length, since he couldn't think of anything else. Naruto let out a bark of laughter.

"This coming from the guy with the broken arm?"

"Fine, Sakura can stay. _You_ can just die."

"As if I'd leave you two unsupervised."

"Please tell me you ditched us so that we wouldn't get caught in the crossfire while you were on your little campaign against evil." Sakura ripped open the package with her teeth, swinging her feet out over the overhang. Naruto snorted, balancing on the edge of the roof flippantly and walking with the confidence of a person who has never been afraid of missteps.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows, decided she didn't deserve a response.

"So," Naruto hopped over towards Sakura and peered over her shoulder exuberantly. She hissed him away, crushing the dried noodles in her palms. He pouted, "What's our next move?"

Sasuke looked over at the two of them irritably, "I already told you, get lost."

"Not a chance," Naruto snapped back. Sakura bent her head lower, smashing the noodles with the sort of aggravation that suggested each had done her some great personal offence. Naruto crossed his arms, "I thought we agreed, we're work together so you don't die, and then we're going home."

Sasuke looked away moodily, gritting his teeth. Sakura sprinkled seasoning over their purchase, and said rather abruptly, "We're friends, aren't we?"

"Of course!" Naruto yelled brightly, and plopped down next to her. Sasuke remained silent. He didn't really know what to say anyways. When he noticed Sakura looking at him, he pretended to be absorbed in deep thought.

"We'll hit the mafia houses," he said finally, "Itachi was in a gang—and it's not like the Akatsuki was the only one on north side. We'll start looking when it's dark again—sleep until then."

Sakura raised her eyebrows, "You think we're that dumb? You'll just run away again, soon as we shut our eyes."

"So stay up," Sasuke snarled, and slouched back onto his elbows. He caught a flash of hurt on her face, and felt a sort of twinge of regret, before he rolled onto his side and faked slumber.

Naruto rolled his eyes, eating his dry ramen-powder. "Damn kids."

* * *

They found the nightclub easy enough. Naruto loved it. His whole body jittered and swayed with the dark, heavy music, thrumming with the energy. Sasuke shrunk in contrast, finding the darkest corner he could and slinking into it, blending with the grime. Sakura grimaced, her fingers twitchily refusing the drinks pushed at her.

God, this place was such as screw house. The biggest screw house, actually, famous for black marketing and pimps. Now all they had to do was find the right one.

"Naruto," she scolded, "C'mon, pay attention. Look like you want to higher a hit man."

"What? Oh. Oh yeah, right." Naruto's face contorted, until he looked more constipated then tough, and he swaggered over to the bar, slapping his hand down drunkenly and leering at the thickset bartender.

"Where's the back room?" he slurred half-convincingly. The bartender glared at him.

"How'd you get past the bouncers, punk?" he jerked his chin at two mean looking women in the corner—and they closed in on the blond, gripping the back of his neck warningly. Naruto laughed weakly around the chokehold.

"Rosebud?"

Sasuke rushed past her, eyes dark, and jumped one of the women from behind. She went down with a snarl, and suddenly there were three—five more—

Sakura swore. Trust them to totally ignore the meaning of discreet.

She studiously avoided eye contact when the two of them were dragged out, and sat at the bar wearily. Great. Either there wasn't a backroom, or it was so heavily guarded, there'd be no chance of them getting back there.

"You want anything?" the bartender asked. She shrugged.

"Yeah, I'll have a soda."

He stared at her for a moment, cleaning out the glass slowly, before he nodded.

"Sure, go on back and get yourself one," he said lightly, "I think you'll find it in the last stall, men's room."

Sakura almost choked on her oxygen. Was this for serious? _That_ was the password?

She staggered off to the hallway, head spinning. _Well_, she supposed, _What kind of a person orders soda at a bar?_

Sasuke and Naruto were waiting for her when she came back out, wide eyed and still stunned. Sasuke kicked at the pavement moodily, his broken arm dislocated again from the fight, lip split and swollen. "What took you so long?"

Sakura blinked, "Business arrangement," she said weakly, and then turned her face towards him, "I've got a meeting for us. With the Akatsuki—I know where they'll be next Saturday. Where they're planning on setting up base."

Sasuke's hand's tightened into hard fists, and Naruto grinned fiercely, "Is it far?"

"Kind of," she shrugged, "Day's walk, maybe an hour or two on X-boards. At least, I think so. Prisoner's Square is back by the river, yeah?"

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded, "Yeah, I know where it is. They'll be in that old arena, won't they?" he smiled a little savagely, "That's in two days. We should check it out tomorrow."

She and Naruto exchanged worried looks, "Okay," Sakura said finally, "Maybe we should get some weapons or something?"

"Yeah, fine," Sasuke said impatiently, and started off down the street, "Let's go."

* * *

There was nothing as horrible as landing her plane, admitting farewell to her sky and returning to the tarnished ground. She took off the helmet mechanically, and swung out of the pit, landing heavily. One of the cadets rushed to park her plane. She tossed the keys to them absently, and stalked towards the base.

She had been summoned by Orochimaru. Her next mission was all lined up, nice and orderly, and she couldn't help but drag her steps.

A different officer opened the door for her this time. She tried not to think about that too much.

"Temari," Orochimaru greeted smoothly with a smirk. She kept her face empty as she bowed.

"I am to understand that you have a mission for me, sir," she spoke quickly, hands balled at her side. Orochimaru raised his eyebrows as though surprised.

"Oh, yes. I had almost forgot," he stood from his desk, and turned to face the window pensively.

_I could kill him right now_, Temari realized. Her hands twitched at the auto-shot strapped to her hip, but made no move to draw.

When Orochimaru turned back, he was smiling almost cruelly, as though he had guessed her intentions. The thought was enough to make her sick.

"You remember the talk we had concerning Sasuke Uchiha, correct?" he toyed with one of his large, sharp earrings.

"Yes, sir," Temari said slowly. A little worm of suspicion nagged at her. Orochimaru regarded her like she was a particularly interesting tool.

"I'd like you to capture him," he said bluntly, "Tell him that I want him back. If he refuses, kill him."

He walked back to the desk and slid a file across to her, "Here is a record of his physical statistics, as far as we know. These are from two years ago, of course—when he was fifteen."

She opened the folder slowly, scanned the contents with a sinking stomach. Of course. Of course he would have to be an Uchiha.

"Do you have any questions?" Orochimaru prompted. She shut the file and tucked it under her arm.

"Yes," she said, suddenly bold, "Why are you sending me on this mission, sir? I'd have to check my own ratings, but he has the advantage over me in nearly every—"

"If you succeed," Orochimaru interrupted her, "I will release you and your brothers from the army with a considerable sum of money. You'll be free to live the rest of your life as you see fit."

Temari swallowed—such an offer was certainly worth dying for. She resisted the urge to check his stats again—instead asking, lowly, "Where was he last sighted?"

"South western border sector, though there are reports of him dismantling the Akatsuki's base in Sector 9."

"And Itachi?" Temari questioned. Orochimaru's eyes glinted approvingly. She had the impression she'd asked the right question.

"He has been confirmed alive."

"I see," Temari said, and walked out without bowing. Her heart was racing from fear and excitement, and beneath that was the steady, burning determination to _win_.

* * *

Ino woke up with a wet gasp. Her whole body burned faintly, stomach throbbing weakly—but it wasn't as bad as she thought it'd be.

"She's up," Hinata said quietly. Shikamaru's head jerked up with a snap—it looked like he'd fallen asleep leaning back against the wall. He crawled stiffly over to her side.

"Hey," Ino smiled, and then at Hinata, "You made it out okay?"

Hinata shrugged, her pale eyes clouded with trouble, "Yeah."

Ino nodded, and lay quietly, staring at the shadowy ceiling and the cold, white light coming from the open window. She didn't think about what had happened. She didn't want to.

She turned her face to the wall that was never black enough, and laid her hand gently over her empty womb, mind curiously blank. She shut her eyes and prayed.

_I'm sorry I couldn't protect you._

She let one tear fall, and then sat up awkwardly, "Hey, Shikamaru. We need to check something."

"Um." Shikamaru stared at her like she was crazy, "Could you please lie down?"

She felt pathetically weak, and dizzy too. "I—ugh, okay, but…but this is important, so…when I'm better, we gotta go check it, okay?"

"Yeah, okay, fine. Whatever," he mumbled, already pushing her back to the nest of blankets.

She nodded firmly, and shut her eyes, focused on her breathing, and not the thing she had lost.

_Tomorrow_, she thought firmly, _Tomorrow, I'm going to find that little girl who isn't supposed to exist. _

* * *

When she woke up in the morning, Hinata was gone.

* * *

"We don't have to do this Neji," Tenten said quietly. She knew he was still awake. Neji was never really asleep.

Just beside her, Lee and Gai snored enthusiastically, sprawled out and hogging all of the fire's warmth. She didn't really mind. It was enough that they were there.

Neji stared blankly into the fire, perfect light eyes reflecting the flames. He scowled slightly.

"Tenten," he said softly, "You three can go back. There's no point in you coming."

She set her teeth, "Don't be stupid. Of course I'm going. I just…it just doesn't seem fair."

Neji got to his feet, and stared critically down at Lee and Gai.

"I'm not going to take them over," he said finally, "You know they'd get us caught. They're bad at this."

Tenten looked down at her toes, and then out across the wide, exposed stretch of borderlands, "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."

Neji shrugged, "I'm leaving now. Before they wake up." He tilted his head to the side considering, expression smooth. "You can stay here, with them."

She shook her head without hesitation. "I'm coming." She held out her hand to him, "I made my decision a long time ago."

Neji took her hand, but didn't pull her to her feet. "You know I won't come back," he said quietly. His hand was slack and cool around hers. Her vision blurred.

It took a lot of courage to say, "I want to be there until the end."

Neji's hand tightened, and he pulled her to her feet. He held her gaze for a long moment, then turned to the west.

"Let's go."

* * *

Lee waited until the whine of the X-board's motor died away before he stopped pretending to snore. Beside him, Gai did the same. Cautiously, the two of them sat up.

Tears ran unchecked and unashamed from Lee's eyes, "She never wanted to take us over, did she?"

"No," Gai said softly, and clasped his student's shoulder, "She just wanted to say goodbye."

Lee sobbed, and looked brokenly at the ground, "I don't understand, sensei." He wiped shakily at his tears, "Why is this happening to them?"

Gai's face looked strained and careworn, "Because, Lee. In the springtime of love, there are those doomed to storms."

Lee thought about that carefully, tears still falling. "She's very brave, isn't she?"

Gai nodded slowly, "I don't think there is any type of courage stronger than hers."

And the sun began to rise.

* * *

Temari checked to make sure her gloves were secure, before taking off at a dead run. She had cut the fence's wires earlier that day, and a hard kick was enough to bust through. She struggled through the barb wire quickly, adrenaline rushing through her blood, registering the yells coming from the compound.

Martin's Genetic Research Center—the most heavily guarded building in the world. And she was breaking and entering.

She had checked the stats—confirmed what she had already suspected to be true. At fifteen, Sasuke had been physically superior to her in every way, and she could only assume he'd improved in the two years since. Temari wasn't stupid—she wasn't the type of soldier who rushed in on missions, thinking that the element of surprise and blind determination would be enough to buoy them to success.

She needed classified information—stuff she wouldn't be able to get for a good ten years, if she did it legally. And she wasn't going to wait that long.

Three guards at the front door, one radioing for help while the other two rushed her, lasers powered, yelling for her to put her hands on her head.

Like hell.

She had three grenades, and she wasn't wasting one of them on these morons.

Temari pulled her auto-shot, lowered her voice and yelled, "Where the hell is she? I was running her straight at you guys!"

The guards slowed when they saw her uniform, confused, and she ran straight at one, until she was just a foot away—

She shot him, point blank, used his body as a shield when his partner fired, and took out other without breaking stride. One left, four founds in her auto, and another twenty would be arriving in a moment.

The soldier was still pulling his weapon when she blasted his temple, and shoved him at the scanners. The key pad picked up his key cark, and the door slid wide. She sprinted in, caught sight of reinforcements skidding around the corner, just as the doors slid closed behind her. She aimed, fried the control panel, and kept going. She had ten floors of this, after all.

The cameras whirled, following her as she sprinted down the dark hallway. There were only researchers here, but she wasn't going to get the actually muscle men to come down unless she did a little terrorizing—

All they had to do was keep her from getting in, after all. Stay in place and decimate her as soon as she showed up on the top.

Unless she got them to break position.

She hit the elevators first, calling both of them down and throwing them to an emergency stop. Alarms sounded—someone yelled something about a fire drill.

She let the cameras roll as she started mowing through the scientists, hard teal eyes squinted and mouth a sharp, grim line. She would not show mercy. She would show those bastards what they were dealing with.

Gaara would be kept three floors up, she thought vaguely, and pulled the trigger.

There were at least four of the world's most brilliant minds sprawled out on the floor around her—she coughed the smell of carnage from her lungs and turned back down the hallway.

She took the stairs to the second floor, turned very deliberately towards the first camera she saw, and shot it out. They could draw their own conclusions, she wasn't killing anyone else.

Temari laser-ed the scientists in their offices, and headed to the stairs. Once they figured out the elevators were down, they'd use them.

Six flights above her, she could hear the soldiers coming. She slipped through the door, and raced up two flights before they got too close, and she dodged out onto the fourth floor.

She melted the door shut behind her, and headed to the circuit breaker, cut the power. She'd like to see them run down the stairs in the dark.

Clicking on her flash light, she sprinted towards the elevator and wasted precious seconds melting through the doors.

Now for the hard part.

_Don't look down_, she steeled herself, and leapt, caught hold of the cable—and began to climb, flashlight gripped in her teeth.

She knew she was strong, but still wasn't sure if she was capable of making a climb like this—six floors meant about sixty feet, slowly, and she wasn't exactly a body builder.

So it was a good thing she didn't plan on climbing.

She took out her laser, slowly, and started melting through the cable, bracing herself. She nearly dropped her laser when she made it, and the cable snapped upwards, the pullies dragging her up at a blurring speed—she leapt off, just before hitting the tenth floor—

_Don't look down don't look down—_

She caught the edge of the ninth floors elevator door and hung there, shaking, before dragging herself up and burning through that too.

Her teeth had left dents in the flashlight's plastic handle, and her knees were shaking faintly. Temari took a deep breath, and headed towards the stairs.

She could hear the soldiers still frantically trying to break through the door to the second level. She repressed a dark snicker and clicked off her flashlight, hiking up the rest of the way in the dark, waiting for the landing.

When she hit it, she felt around for the door, and very, very slowly, turned the handle. She heard the soldiers break through down below, and then the emergency power flickered back on.

She frowned. Damn. Well now she had to work fast.

She opened the door and threw the grenade.

Bullets peppered the door before she even slammed it shut again, and the grenade's explosion had the metal buckling, burning white light streaming from the cracks.

Down below, the soldiers were yelling, running back up the steps awkwardly. Temari tore open the door and shot inside, past the two rooms of fallen soldiers, before she found the last door, guarded only by a DNA scanner, coded for subject specification.

Temari spat into the scanner, and prayed. Please, please let her DNA be a close enough match to Gaara's for—

The door slid aside with a quiet hiss, and she almost sobbed with relief as she ran inside.

Done. She had made it.

"Computer," she said to the empty room, and made sure to lock the door behind her, "Access Sasuke Uchiha's records."

Miles of file cabinets stretched before her, with an entire transparent wall over looking the city. The wall flickered, computer screens blinking to life with Sasuke's data. Breathless, she scanned it, running through statistics and past life, towards exact DNA model replications and—

_Expiration Date: July 23, 2057_

Temari blinked. That was…roughly six years from now. On his twenty fourth birthday.

She scrolled, eyes widening as she read.

_Oh, God…_

* * *

Sakura was very aware of one important fact right now—her feet hurt. And they hurt a _lot_.

She sat down rather pointedly and leaned back against the building, unlacing her army boots sluggishly. Naruto and Sasuke looked back.

"Hey, what's up?" Naruto hopped over to her side peering down curiously. Sakura grimaced at him.

"My feet hurt. I'm taking my shoes off."

Sasuke glowered at her, "Take them off later, we shouldn't be out in the open like this."

Sakura huffed, "It's gonna take like five minutes, so unless you want to carry me, just _wait_."

"You've walked this far, you can—"

"Sasuke, _shut up_." Naruto interrupted nastily. The two boys glared at one another, electricity and all. Sakura didn't care enough to intervene.

Sasuke leaned against the wall stonily in relent, and then stalked off a second later, moodily kicking at whatever crossed his path. Naruto snorted, his arms crossed snootily, nose in the air.

"Prick." He muttered, and scanned the square. It was mostly empty, with a few people scurrying past, and a couple others selling their wares on the streets. His round blue eyes settled on a pale, black haired boy, auto-shots and lasers lined out by his feet. Weapons—perfect.

"Hey, Sakura," he nudged her hip with his foot, waited until she had looked up quizzically, and then pointed, "Figure we can get some from him?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes, then shrugged, digging through her pockets.

"Guess so. Here's some money, come back if it's not enough. Get three autos, two lasers. I think Sasuke's still got his. Oh, and ask about an X-board."

Naruto pocket the money and jogged off with a grin and a jaunty wave, "Got it!"

He slowed as he reached the boy, a little creeped by his pasty white complexion, but shrugged it off.

Something nagged, though.

"How much are these?" he asked, pointing towards the lasers. The boy tilted his head.

"How much do you have?"

"Three hundred," Naruto lied. The boy shrugged.

"I think fifty will be enough," he smiled expressionlessly. Unnerved, Naruto began peeling out the money when the boy spoke again, "What's your name?"

"Naruto," he said slowly, the nag growing full out suspicion. Something was _wrong_ here and—

"Do you know how many genii's buy weapons, Naruto-kun?" the boy pointed an auto-shot at Naruto's chest casually, dialing in on a radio. "About seventy five percent of them." He turned to speak into the radio, but kept his eyes on Naruto, "Sai in, target captured, I got a genii."

Slowly, Naruto put his hands on top of his head. A second later and his arms were gripped by two of the pedestrians who had been wandering the area. He cursed, softly, and dragged his feet as he was led away, awaiting a rescue that never came.

* * *

Sakura leapt to her blistered feet when she saw the pale boy reaching into his jacket, the two suited men rising. She started forwards, opening her mouth to scream a warning, when someone's hand smacked over her mouth and jerked her back into the alley, another hand pining her arms to her sides.

"Be quiet, it's me," Sasuke hissed into her ear. She stopped struggling, and then started again when she remembered what was about to happen to Naruto.

"Let go!" she hissed, "He's in trouble—"

Sasuke's expression twisted, "You think I don't know that?" he snarled, "What do you want me to do, Sakura? They'll have a van of guys parked half a block from here, and all of them have weapons. We have a laser that's half juiced, optimistically."

She wrenched one arm free and shoved at his chest—he didn't let go. "He's our _friend_! We have to help him!" She pried at his fingers fruitlessly, almost crying in frustration. "Let me go!"

"So what, you can die?" Sasuke snarled, "You can't help anyone if you're dead, Sakura."

She took a deep, shuddering gasp, and glared up at him, "You coward," she whispered quietly, "If that were you, he'd try to save you."

Something flashed across Sasuke's face so quickly that it disappeared before she had time to fully understand it. He dropped her wrist. She didn't try to run.

"You're right," Sasuke said blankly, "He would."

There was a sound of a van driving away. Sakura's head drooped to rest on his shoulder, frustrated tears still caught in her eyes. They were too late.

"We'll get him out," Sasuke said flatly, "We just need to plan."

"I know," Sakura muttered, and pushed away from him—froze.

"Sasuke—that person has eyes like you."

* * *

A demon stirred as the darkness rushed in, and stood, almost disbelieving.

Silently, it drifted towards its prison door, and flicked the switch.

_No electricity meant—_

The door slipped open, auto-lock disengaged.

Very slowly, Gaara smiled.

* * *

Walking wasn't as bad as Ino had expected it to be. She'd been in bed for nearly a week, though, and the bleeding had stopped a few days ago. She'd be okay. Even if she never really healed.

"So," Shikamaru still wasn't buying into their story, "You're saying that your friends probably crossed north to check for girl babies? Because you guys think there haven't been any born?"

"Yeah," Ino panted. She stopped a second to lean on him, her hand pressed against her aching abdomen. "Except that we just saw one when we were running from the air raid. So—so we should check it out."

"Huh," Shikamaru said dubiously. "Right, so, we're just going to walk in and be all, 'Hello ma'am, would you be willing to confirm your daughter's gender?'"

Ino frowned, "Uh. We'll wing it."

"Right," Shikamaru rolled his eyes. The two of them scanned the run down playground carefully. Ino sucked on her upper lip, brow furrowed.

"So if we just sit here, she should come by eventually."

"Right," Shikamaru steered her over to the nearest bench, and she sat gratefully, eyes half lidded as she watched the neighborhood children play. What if's began nagging at her mind, presenting visions of her own child, who'd swing higher than the others—

Ino shook her head. She wasn't going to think about that.

Little boys. All of them. Sandy or black haired, shirts every color of the rainbow, scuffed smiles and grubby hands—

There was a flash of a braid.

Ino jostled him, "Hey, I see her."

Shikamaru looked up, squinted through the fray until he caught sight. He sighed, "Right, should I offer her candy and get her in a car?"

He stood anyways, and picked his way towards her, kneeling down and talking quietly. He was too far for her to hear, but Ino watched the girl recognize him, and reply to his questions with harshly honest eyes.

Shikamaru came back, expression clouded. "You were right," he said softly, "There is something weird about her."

He sat down next to her again, the violent green buds of early summer leaves casting gold to his features. She waited impatiently for him to explain. "Well? What is it then?"

Shikamaru blew out a breath and tucked his hands behind his head. "She's been engineered. Built. She's a clone of a woman who died nearly fifty years ago."

Ino blinked over at the little girl, who was patting mud pies, in shock, "Are you serious? Who did that to her?"

"Her name's Tsunade," Shikamaru replied, "Wanna look into it? She's down by the docks, apparently."

Ino nodded, stood. "Yeah, let's do it. We should bring Chouji too, you know. He misses you."

Shikamaru set a gentle, bracing hand on her waist and began steering her away. "Of course. I'll bring the food."

* * *

Naruto sat quietly in the dark car, his mind racing. He just had to play it smart; that was all. He'd been captured before, and if he broke out once, he could do it again. Sasuke would be busy with Itachi, after all.

The van slowed, and the back doors were thrown open, the outer light blinding him and men grabbing him before he even had a chance to struggle. So there went plan A. They led him into a tall research facility, checked him in at the front. He was sorted into creature division genii—he tried not to feel too offended.

The hallways sped past him, until he was up the elevator and shoved into a cell, its other two inmates stirring when he came in.

The guards left, and the electro-lock snapped into place.

The two inmates, both of them male and about his age, looked at him curiously.

"What're you then?" one of them asked, his canines unnaturally long and sharp, face pointed wolfishly. A small dog yipped from atop his head. Naruto regarded the wolf-guy suspiciously. He hoped he didn't have rabies.

"Fox." He said shortly, and leaned back against the wall, "What about you?"

"Dog," the boy replied cheerfully. His hair was brown and stuck up in the back, clawed hands scratching thoughtfully at his pet's fur. He jerked his head at his companion, "And he's got bugs."

"I'm Naruto," Naruto offered. The other boy, the one who hadn't spoken yet, straightened slightly, his sunglasses glinting.

"I am Shino," he said gravely, and held out his hand for Naruto to shake. Bemused, Naruto accepted. The dog yipped, and wolf-boy laughed.

"I'm Kiba, and this here's Akamaru." He studied Naruto warily, "The guard's patrol by here every ten minutes, but we've always got cameras on us, and that means audio."

"How long have you been here?" Naruto asked. Judging by their clean-smell, not long.

"Couple of hours. They had a break out yesterday, so they're going crazy to get test subjects." Kiba shifted closer to Naruto and _growled_.

The thing was, he understood it. Foxes were part of the dog family, and all that.

Got an escape plan?

Shino never moved, but Naruto had the impression that he was watching them intently. Naruto smiled.

"Yeah," he said. Kiba stood casually, and waltzed in front of the camera's view. Naruto checked to make sure the guards weren't coming, and stuck his fingers down his throat.

He hadn't eaten much for a while, which meant he had a belly full of stomach acid. Acid which could, given his hybrid state, eat through metal in a mater of hours.

Naruto settled back comfortably, and prepared to take a nap.

* * *

Sasuke turned immediately at her words, gaze flickering through faces before locking onto his target, and taking the plunge. Sakura had never seen any one move that quickly, could only sprint as she did her best to keep him in sight, swearing under her breath, shaking hands gripping the laser Sasuke had given her, white knuckled and trembling. If this man was really as dangerous as Sasuke had led her to believe, she doubted it'd do much good.

Itachi's shadow led them deeper into the twist of buildings, until she began to feel like a lab rat, racing the clock towards the exit. Sasuke was putting distance between them, he was running so fast, and Sakura could only sprint so long. Panting, she skidded to a halt, hands on her knees and swallowing the copper blossoms at the back of her throat.

She clambered up onto the nearest roof with some difficulty, and fine wired her boots to call her X-board. She only had to wait thirty seconds, perhaps, before it zipped to her side and she leapt on, climbing high to squint for an elusive dark head—

She couldn't see him. Panic began to unravel within her. Naruto was gone. And now, it seemed Sasuke was too. How the hell was she supposed to—

_Wait_.

She caught sight of him, almost merged with the shadows, and sped towards him, engines moving faster than muscle. Sasuke looked up when she was almost directly above him and reached for her. She knelt and helped him on, hitting the booster and then they were off, speeding after his brother—gaining—and—

Sasuke jumped off the board while they were still nearly fifteen feet off the ground, landing cat-like, and just in front of Itachi. Sakura stopped quickly, waited until she had floated down another ten feet before jumping off as well.

The two stood opposite one another, staring coldly into each other's eyes. Nervously, holding her board like a shield, Sakura scooted to Sasuke's side and pressed the laser quickly into his hand.

His fingers curled around it, voice low when he ordered, "Get in the air. If he kills me, get out of here and wait for Naruto to find you. Got it?"

* * *

Hinata knew he was coming. Could feel the air compress and compact, mold around their advancing spirits, his grey with determined duty, and hers a blue that bordered on black, drowning in sorrow.

They touched down just behind her, and she turned slowly, white eyes seeing everything and nothing.

She was so tired of running, merely stepped towards them, street characteristically empty.

"Hello, Neji." Hinata said quietly.

* * *

Itachi didn't look concerned for a cornered man. If anything, he looked condescending…and doomed. There was some sort of lingering weariness to his features that suggested he had been racing his shadow, and now, that was all to end.

"Why'd you do it?" Sasuke asked quietly. The muscles in his arms were stretched taught, an angry sneer pulling his face, "I don't care what they told me. I'm not stupid, and you aren't a psycho. There was a reason, wasn't there?"

Itachi blinked very deliberately, lazily, as if he had all the time in the world.

"You're better off not knowing," he said calmly, hands limp at his side. He glanced down at the laser Sasuke was holding.

"Well? If you're going to kill me, do so." he stared at Sasuke, long and hard and merciless, "Remember what I taught you. Don't make the mistake of getting too close, or I'll burst on you."

Sasuke was still tensed, glaring furiously, "Don't screw with me," he hissed softly, "I want you dead. But you had better tell me why, or I swear to God, I'll take off your fingers one at a time."

He took a step forward. Sakura stood frozen, a little noise of protest rising in her throat at Sasuke's move.

Sasuke didn't turn to look at her, "Sakura, get out of here."

She didn't move.

Sasuke hissed, "Sakura, _go_."

Very slowly, she got on the board. "Fine. But don't think you'll be able to run again, 'cause I'll be watching."

Itachi watched her shoot up silently, crimson irises marking her progress.

He looked down abruptly, "Sasuke, I need you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you."

Sasuke laughed bitterly, was surprised at how much it hurt, "Listen to _you_?! Don't make it sound like you're innocent, you bastard. I just want to know what pissed you off enough to kill everyone. Or was that your plan from the start? Did you really hate me that much?"

He shot forwards, grabbing Itachi's collar and dragging the laser to pulse just under the other man's throat. "Because I don't think you could have screwed me over any worse than letting me _live_."

"Sasuke," Itachi said evenly, "I'm going to explode in two and half minutes—I suggest you step back."

Sasuke froze, before his chokehold tightened, "Do you really think I'd fall for that—?"

"Today's my twenty fourth birthday." Itachi's voice was soft, but still commanded instant attention. He had always been like that. "We're designed to be like that. All of us. We die from an internal explosion when we turn twenty four, unless something else gets to us first."

He pried Sasuke's hands from his neck carelessly, "I was under orders that night to assassinate the Uchiha unit. All of them except you and I were made from the same stock—left alive, their combined detonations would have resulted in a supernova large enough to wipe out the entire militial base."

"You're lying," Sasuke said quietly, mentally calculating how long he had to live. "That's insane. That's—why would they do something like that? We're the _perfect_ soldiers, why would they try to kill us off?"

"I don't know. But I think the answers are somewhere in Martin's Genetic Research Center," Itachi replied calmly, "But I do know that I've got less than a minute before I go off too—and that's assuming my watch is right."

Sasuke wavered, before his grip once again tightened. "Fine," he said softly, "Fine. We'll just have to see what happens then, right? If you're lying, I kill you. If you're telling the truth then—then you're _still dead_." He smiled tightly. "That's all I care abo—"

Itachi kicked him so hard and so quickly in the stomach, he was on the ground and retching before he realized what had happened, was already yelling at Sakura to come back down to get him, an angry heartbeat banging against his skull, demanding he _movekillcrush_—

Sakura zoomed down and helped him on, pulling them up and away and—in the wrong direction.

"What're you _doing_?!" Sasuke yelled furiously, and shoved her roughly, fighting to kick her feet off the controls, "You _stupid_ id—"

"He's going to blow up, Sasuke!" Sakura yelled back at him, "God, don't be such a moron! Would it kill you to _trust_ someone for once in your life!? How far can he get in less than a minute, anyway!?"

"Shut _up_!" Sasuke snarled, and finally managed to grapple her into the middle, "Don't you _ever_ tell me to trust—"

The shockwave was enough to slip Sakura right off the board, sending her screaming towards the ground. The board suddenly fell away under Sasuke as it hurried towards it's owner—and it was all he could do to stay on.

The fast bite of wind stripped tears from his eyes, drying them out and bleeding the awful, awful truth in.

He hadn't been lying.

With condemned hands, Sasuke grabbed her wrist, numbly pulling her up alongside him.

Itachi's bomb had been enough to flatten the block or so of empty buildings around him, red mushroom clouds of gas ballooning straight up toward heaven as the pipes burst.

Dead, Sasuke let her steer them to the ground.

* * *

"Naruto."

Naruto snuffled, forced heavy eyelids open blearily. Sai, or whatever his name was, was kneeling curiously at his prison cell. Naruto glanced around, Kiba and Shino were asleep too—or faking it. He raised his eyebrows.

"I don't suppose you'd sell me any weapons?"

Sai smiled humorlessly. "I wanted to ask you something. You had this on you," he reached into his pocket, pulled out a cheap Polaroid photograph. Sakura and Sasuke were looking towards it, Sakura surprised and Sasuke scowling. Naruto felt something jolt in his chest.

"Yeah, so?" he asked casually. Sai frowned down at the photo.

"Who are these people?"

Naruto laughed, "I confess. Once I break out of here, I'm planning on eating them for lunch."

"They don't look very filling," Sai replied. Naruto snorted, until he realized Sai wasn't kidding. Slowly, he raised his hands in surrender.

"Dude, joke. They're my friends, alright?"

Sai blinked, looked back down, "Ah. I don't suppose you'll tell me their names?"

Naruto considered, "Well, you can go after the guy. He needs some excitement in his life anyways. His name's Sasuke. Good luck catching him, seriously."

Sai frowned, "What do you mean by that?"

Naruto scoffed, "He's a military-genii. By the time you guys pull a gun on him, he'll probably be…like, on the ceiling, or something."

"Ah." Sai straightened, and began to walk away, scribbling the name 'Sasuke' into his notebook. Naruto sat straighter impulsively.

"Yo, wait. Can I have that?"

Sai turned, eyebrows raised, "This photo? Shouldn't you be asking for a nail file or something? Judging by the vomit on your cell bars, I'd have guessed you were trying to break out of here."

Naruto hoped he didn't look as aghast as he felt. "I don't like you very much, smiley-boy. Give me my picture back, I need it."

Sai looked at him weirdly, "I thought animal-genii's were supposed to have difficulty with human relations?"

Kiba's growl was so low, Naruto was sure anybody without enhanced ears wouldn't have been able to hear it. Sai didn't.

"Right, whatever, I'm irregular data. Give it back."

Sai was studying him in fascination, before he slowly handed back the photograph.

"They're important to you, then?"

Naruto tucked the picture back into his pocket, feeling oddly protective. "I'd die for them," he said honestly, hoping the threat was clear.

The two of them continued to stare at one another in silence. Sai's face stayed blank—but Naruto had the impression some great internal conflict was being conducted.

Sai reached into his pocket, and pulled out a set of keys. "You had better run fast."

* * *

Tenten didn't like this. She didn't like the way Hinata's face crushed, how utter defeat seemed to smother her like a blanket. She didn't like the razor-sharp angles in Neji's back—and she didn't like what was about to happen.

This was as far as she could go. This was—no, she didn't have to say goodbye just yet. He would hold on for a minute. He owed her that much.

"I'll stand over there," she said quietly, and walked, heavy stepped, from a tragedy in the making.

Hinata watched Tenten leave, something like pity nestling in her heart, along with her own self loathing. She had accomplished nothing by her short, brutal flight. Had dirtied her wings to survive, fallen in love with the wrong person, someone already soul-tied to another.

And here was Neji. Just as he had always promised. Here was her constant doom.

"Hinata," Neji said flatly, "It is time to rest."

Her eyes stung, head bowed to the ground and her arms shakily wrapped around herself. God, God she had been so—so selfish, to throw away their lives like this…

Tenten was climbing a tree as they faced one another, her feet bare and raw from wear. Hinata watched silently as the girl climbed, stopping on a branch that was recklessly high, smooth shoulders slumped and face turned towards the burning orange sunset.

Hinata looked, seeing the sorrow her soul had tinted, and began to cry for the things she had determined stillborn.

"Hinata…" Neji began awkwardly at her tears. Hinata shook her head, her own hands not enough to keep it in.

"I'm—I'm so sorry, Neji. So sorry. I know I shouldn't have run but I…" she hiccupped, stuttered her next breath, "I wanted to…live. Something more than just a…a piece of livestock to breed until my expiration date. I'm really—I wished you didn't have to do this."

Neji's face was very blank, "Main house Hyuuga's are the only ones who are able to bear children," he said softly, and then more viciously, "Did you even _think_ about what this would mean for Hanabi?!"

Another rush of guilt swept through her, and Hinata's head bowed, biting her lip so fiercely it bled, "I just—I didn't think. I—I just ran."

Neji's jaw tightened to the point of snapping, "The one time you do something selfish, Hinata. The one time—and it had to be the worst."

Hinata clenched her hands, rose her eyes to Neji's face. "You don't have to do this," she whispered, "I can kill myself. You can…can stay here, on the South side. No one will ever know."

Neji laughed, "You know it won't work like that. Your soul will just be recycled again—no," he took a great, steeling breath, and slid into the stance, "This is my duty. This is justice."

After a moment, Hinata moved into place as well, her head still bowed.

And Tenten stayed turned towards the last speck of light in her darkening world, facing away just so Neji wouldn't be able to see her cry.

* * *

Ino jutted out her lip, refusing the arms both Chouji and Shikamaru offered her.

She'd been knocking for nearly five minutes, and no one had answered. She ground her teeth together angrily.

"Maybe no one's home?" Chouji whispered to Shikamaru. Shikamaru looked at him flatly, and pointed out the lights—as well as what sounded like a humming microwave.

"Well," Ino shouted angrily, "Looks like no one's here! Alright guys, let's get the rockets!"

She stomped her feet rapidly, like someone running down the steps. Shikamaru and Chouji both looked at her like she was crazy—and then the door swung open.

"You think I'd fall for that old trick?" A voluptuous, blonde woman leaned almost arrogantly against the door frame, "Please."

"You opened the door, didn't you?" Shikamaru pointed out shrewdly. The woman, Tsunade, sent him a black look.

Ino saw no point in beating around the bush, and let her self in. Her nose wrinkled, "Blech, when was the last time you cleaned this place?"

Something that looked like a scalpel very nearly took off her left ear. Tsunade was nearly spitting at her, "D'you have something I want, or should I drown you in the river?"

"You built a little girl," Shikamaru said very firmly, his arms crossed, "Which means you must know something about the population inequality. Maybe even more than we do." His eyes narrowed as Tsunade flinched guiltily.

"Why the hell should I know anything?" she defended angrily, "I don't even know what you're talking about. I'm just a doctor—I'm not a scientist, I don't know how to clone—"

"We said built," Chouji interrupted, "Not clone."

"You know something," Ino guessed, and then as a shot in the dark, "You know why the sky looks like it's falling apart sometimes, don't you?"

Again, the guilty flinch, and Shikamaru blurted, "Why aren't there any genii's older than about thirty? What's happening?"

After a moment Tsunade met their accusing gaze. "None of that is real," she said softly. Ino and Chouji looked incredulous, Shikamaru just suspicious.

"It seems pretty real to me. I've seen them. And all the genii's I've talked to are—"

"What you're talking to," Tsunade spat, "Is data," her teeth gritted as she flopped back onto her bed, sudden fragility wearing stress into the corners of her figure, "That's all it is. It's just a program."

Ino swallowed, glanced at Shikamaru, "She's crazy. Or she's lying."

Shikamaru was still frowning, and studying Tsunade very intently, "So…you're saying we're all part of a computer program?"

Chouji snorted. Tsunade glanced back up angrily, "Don't be stupid. I didn't say that. I said that the _genii's_ were data. This world is…it's like a hologram. Or some of it, anyway and—"

She broke off, rubbing her temples wearily. "If I tell you, will you promise me that you'll shut it down?"

Shikamaru opened his mouth to object—Ino interrupted him. "Of course," she said immediately, "Just tell us."

Her fingers were crossed behind her back.

* * *

They had made it out of the facility, when another kind of disaster appeared.

Naruto skidded to a halt just after Kiba, eyeing the hybrid warily. Kiba stood very still, head cocked and breathing in very deeply.

His brazen attitude abruptly vanished, and he shot a look towards Shino. "We aren't going that way."

Shino frowned, but Naruto was the one who protested, "Are you crazy? There's no other way out! If we stick to side streets, we'll either be lost, or caught."

Sai straightened slightly, "Naruto is right; there is no other way out except for this road."

Kiba twitched, shook his head and stared at Naruto almost desperately, "Can't you smell it? We should _not_ go down there."

Naruto checked behind his shoulder. He could still hear the alarms blaring back at the facility—the scientists would be after them soon, probably with tranquilizers and—

"Fine, stay here," Naruto yelled, and took off running. Kiba growled and shot after him.

Shino and Sai exchanged bemused looks, before trotting after them.

As he ran, Naruto began picking up on the scent Kiba had mentioned—and understood now, why the other boy didn't want to go near it. It almost _reeked_ of death. Unwillingly, his mad charge slowed—until Kiba grabbed his shoulder and started dragging, "Oh _no_," the dog-boy snarled, "You are _not_ chickening out now!"

Naruto bristled, "Who was the one who didn't want to come?!"

Behind the bickering pair, Shino turned his head to regard Sai thoughtfully. "There is something big just ahead of us," he guessed. Sai blinked, nodded.

"Yes, I suppose. There's an extended facility at the corner of this street, but it's heavily guarded. It's where the researchers sleep. You'd have to be a monster to break in there."

Shino hunched into his hood thoughtfully, recalling the expression on Kiba's face.

"That might be what we're dealing with."

When they drew level with the facility, you didn't need an enhanced nose to pick up the stench. Sai knelt down by the slashed barbwire curiously. "Someone tore through here," he noted, picking at the blood dried to the metal. "Someone who either didn't care if they got hurt, or was angry enough not to notice."

There was the sound of an almost silent footstep, one too quiet for any normal human to make.

His eyes were ringed in darkness, burning with a sick kind of mania, hair as red as the blood rolling down his cheeks. He barely even looked at any of them, except for Sai. The moment he saw Sai in his suit, his hands tensed into gory claws.

He looked less like a human and more like a monster. He darted forwards flicker-fast, faster even than Sasuke, grabbing Sai by the front of his jacket and slamming him back into the ground, his other hand grabbing around the other boy's throat. Naruto dived at him, yelling, "Get off! What's your problem, you psycho?!"

He took an elbow to the stomach, got the wind knocked out of him when his back slammed into the ground, had to clamp down fast and hard on the monster rising inside him, fangs bared and quick for the fight.

"He isn't with the company anymore," Shino said clearly and calmly, "If you'd stop, he can lead you back into the facility. You'll be free to do whatever you want to our captors."

For a second Naruto had thought the other boy hadn't heard him, his hands were still locked around Sai's throat. Slowly, his head turned, glaring under Shino's hood.

His voice rasped when he spoke, and it was awkward, like he didn't quite have the hang of it yet.

"He should die," the boy hissed, and turned his attention back to Sai, who was now spluttering weakly, bloating and swelling in all the wrong ways and—

Naruto only lost control for a second.

But that was all the time the monster inside of him needed to move, unnaturally fast, the kind of speed Naruto never could have done normally, and he was just better like this, fasterstrongersmarterslicker—

"I said _stop_," he snarled into Gaara's face, before he shoved the demon back and away, staggering upright and bowing his head so that his bangs would shadow his crimson eyes.

Gaara was staring up at him mutinously, disbelievingly, "You're like me," he said softly.

Naruto walked off jerkily, "I am _nothing_ like you."

After a moment he heard them fall into step behind him—and another pair of feet had joined the pack. Gaara was watching Naruto curiously, but with a certain amount of respect as well. Something animal inside of him recognized Naruto as alpha male.

For once, Naruto was glad Sasuke and Sakura weren't there. He didn't _ever_ want them to see him like that.

* * *

Temari revved the engines, heart spinning with the needles, curses snatched from her lips by the driving wind.

She wasn't going to be able to kill Sasuke on the ground. But here he was—in the air and on an X board, battered and exhausted, one arm slung loosely around a small girl's waist.

Her eyes narrowed, and she hit the guns to full power. Because it was now or never, and like hell was she going to let a slip of a teenager stand between her and freedom.

She set her teeth, and kind of wondered what she was becoming.

Her first round of machine gun fire actually clipped the board—lucky shot on her part, she was more of a trick and evasion pilot than a shooter, but—

Sasuke's head snapped around, face torn somewhere between fear and rage, and there was nothing but a shitty, half charged laser in his sweaty, dirt-caked hand.

The girl was already speeding them to the ground, flying recklessly fast, dodging between buildings with reflexes Temari suspected had been enhanced. Either that, or she was unnaturally good.

"Come on," she whispered, "Come and get me."

The girl was still playing pilot, but here it came, this was when Sasuke pushed her to the side and in the center, standing between her and Temari's guns.

She fired off a few rounds, wondering if she'd be lucky enough to hit him.

Sasuke made a turn, hard and sharp and fast until the two were standing nearly horizontal, speed keeping them upright until—

The girl crumpled to the ground with a yelp, landing in a tangled heap of limbs and swearing—but she'd only fallen perhaps three feet, no real injury but did she look pissed, and Temari almost laughed when Sasuke started flying up to meet her.

_Stupid men._

She rolled, dodging Sasuke and flying upside down until she was nearly on top of the wide eyed, pink haired girl—

She snapped her seat belt and fell.

This was going to hurt like a bitch, she reckoned with a grimace, twisting to have her feet under her—and landed less than a foot from where Sakura stood.

She was briefly aware of her ankle shattering, but pushed that away, focus girl, focus, got the gun pressed nice and snug against Sakura's temple and yelled—

Sasuke was already landing. He had his face careful-blank. Temari grinned. She knew that look, had it on herself, sometimes. It was the kind of face you got when you were absolutely shit scared.

"So," Temari called harshly, "You interested in chatting it up with Orochimaru?"

Sasuke twitched like something had snapped, "You're working for him? Tell him his other little project went kamikaze."

"He doesn't care about Itachi," Temari snapped coldly. The girl's chest was rising and falling very fast under her arm, her pink hair sticking to the sweat on the back of her neck. She tried not to feel guilty. "So I'm guessing you aren't going to talk to him?"

_Please say yes. Please say yes._

Sasuke's eyes darted towards the girl, skittered back towards Temari. She could almost see the fight begin to fall away from him, eyes dulling and muscles slackening.

"…Let her go." Sasuke said quietly. He dropped the X-board to the ground. "I'll—"

"He's not going," the girl said suddenly, and jammed the laser into Temari's chest.

She could have pulled the trigger.

She didn't.

And even as her heart liquefied, grip slackening and knees folding she could only sigh, soft and surprised and utterly defeated.

_He gave her the laser_, she realized vaguely, blinking into white, and could have laughed.

She was never soft. She was never prepared to die for anyone but herself, laughed at love stories and rolled her eyes at—at stupid things like…

She was dead before her first tear had fully formed.

The clouds wouldn't let her see the sky.

* * *

"So, you're sure this will work?" Ino examined the sewer pipe dubiously. Shikamaru squinted down it, glanced over his shoulder fretfully towards where Chouji was standing watch.

"I think so. But it's miles of crawling—in the dark. And the filth and it—" he sighed gustily, swinging out his arms, "This is going to be such a pain."

"You don't have to go," Ino said calmly, and scrambled inside. "See you on the North-side."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, but clambered in after her, waving at Chouji to follow.

"Is this even the right thing?" he muttered to himself. Ino blinked back at him—barely visible in the darkness. She looked away.

"You know what will happen if we let this go on," she said softly. Shikamaru sighed, eyes closed and embracing the dark.

"Yeah, I know."

"Hurry up!" Chouji hissed. He blinked furiously, "I hate the dark…"

They crawled for what felt like hours, until knees and hands bled and blistered, the sever pipe suffocating with its deadly hot, stuffy air.

And then came the rats.

The first one crawled over Ino's hand. She gasped softly, and prayed—begged the gods that…

Vicious, dangerously needle teeth prickled at her skin, and then there was the thundering as the rats came—waves and waves of them, all invisible in the total darkness, leaping and screeching at her face, clawing ripping—she threw up her hands, screaming, heard Shikamaru yelling behind her, Chouji yelling louder than both of them, the taste of terror almost suffocating her—

"Move!" Shikamaru yelled—and she did, ignoring the sting and scrambling, little bodies snapping under her hands, skeletons of their dead crunching and wave after wave came and chewed, until she felt like nothing more than a destroyed, failed thing, ripped meat—

And then she saw the white.

The end.

The rats were gone, suddenly, and she surged forwards, panting, gasping in the beautiful, crystalline air with heavy dry sobs, back aching with the weight of confined blackness—

She rolled out into the open, bleeding and shredded, swallowing down the weak grey sunshine—laughing out loud when Shikamaru joined her, looking even worse than she felt, flopping down on the dirt beside her.

And then—and then she realized that someone wasn't coming.

A sick wash of horror flooded through her, and Shikamaru seemed to have realized the same thing, because he was already scrambling back to the pipe, calling and calling with only echoes as a reply.

_We left him behind._

* * *

Tenten knew about the expiration dates. She knew that someday, she would have lost Neji.

She just didn't want for it to be today.

The Hyuuga were a military breed, infertile save a select few, the main house members. She couldn't decide which fate would be worse—to be Hinata, doomed to forever live indoors, existing only to reproduce frantically until her short lifespan ran out. Or to be Neji, forced to kill his own family by erasing himself from the world as well.

They could see souls, the Hyuuga. Their eyes were special like that—they could see anything, really—anything.

She wondered if Neji had ever looked at her like she was a girl, had ever allowed himself to see.

She supposed it would have mattered to him. She wouldn't have been recycled, like he would have been, had Hinata not chosen to flee. Both of them would have had their souls moved into the bodies of their children, eternally youthful.

But now that wouldn't happen.

Neji closed his eyes, and stepped out of his body. Across from him, Hinata did the same.

"Hinata," Neji bowed low, "I have one thing to ask you."

Hinata looked towards the budding stars, wishing for nothing. She glanced over at Tenten, still shuddering blue-black sadness, wondered at the bright tints of autumn, slowly stuttering out.

"Anything," she agreed quietly. Neji nodded.

"Please…kill me in such a way that it takes me time to die."

Hinata nodded. "I understand."

She would not fail him a second time, would not break the traditions set in place, the code of honor that demanded her death she would now respect—she owed him that much.

Hinata closed her eyes, and began.

Tenten turned at the stillness, watched the still-standing figures face one another.

Their eyes were blank and unseeing. She knew what was happening. She knew what to do now.

By the time she was halfway down the tree, Hinata's knees had already buckled, eyes clouding over and closing.

Tenten watched her fall, watched the soft, bitter smile touch her face, and tried not to hate.

She ran quietly to Neji's side, even as he collapsed as well.

"Hi, Neji." She said softly, and reached to his hand, wonder why her mind buzzed with static, loosing feeling with something that had always been there before.

"Tenten," Neji mumbled, slow and thick. He was perfectly uninjured, but somehow dying in a way more horrible than she could have imagined.

She would not spoil her last second with him crying.

"I don't want you to go," she said quietly, felt her center shaking, but kept her hands steady. "I want to stand by you. Always."

"I know…" Neji rasped. He seemed to have trouble focusing. "Tenten, I never—told you this. But you have…you have the…" he seemed to struggle with something more than death, "…I like your smile."

Tenten snorted, choked up on tears. "Thanks, Neji."

He might have smiled—and seemed to gather himself for one last thing, and reached—

He died, hand millimeters from her own, fingers still stretched. Tenten breathed, staring at their hands, a closeness that was infinity apart.

She touched his cold skin brokenly, felt her spirit rattle against her body, screaming for freedom.

"You were so close, Neji," she said hollowly, "So…so close."

She set her head down on his chest and tried to imagine it still breathing, wondered if she could breathe him to life even as she felt herself dying.

When she shut her eyes, she could see his hand, reaching out for her own.

Tenten never hesitated. Spirit stretching, she filled the gaps between her fingers.

And she followed.

* * *

Tsunade tapped her fingers against her desk, drunk on the dial tone.

He picked up just when she hung up. She had to call again, overloaded on memories when she heard his voice "Hello?"

"Jiraya," she began, "It's time."

* * *

She hadn't said a word to him in nearly seven hours. He could relate. It wasn't so much that Chouji was dead—it was more that he'd had to die like that. In one of the most foul, ugly and terrifying ways Shikamaru could ever imagine.

And they had left him.

Not intentionally, of course, but still. But still. He hadn't been thinking of anyone then, not Ino or her almost baby or Chouji, his best—best friend, screaming behind him. He'd just thought of the dark and the pain and the sickening fear, the overpowering desire to run and not being able to.

Self disgust rose up in his throat, thick and heavy and vile. He checked to the side, let Ino sprint ahead of him when she finally caught a glimpse of Sakura's infamous pink hair.

He stayed put where he was and watched them blankly, wondered—dreaded what was soon to come.

He wondered if Chouji was still alive. Still slowly being eaten.

He shuddered.

"Ino?!" Sakura stared unseeingly at her best friend, met the tear-shot eyes numbly.

She forced her muscles into a tense. She hadn't done anything wrong. It was self defense! It was—

She didn't want to think about it.

Ino crouched down beside her, sent Sasuke shambling off with one of her nastier looks, "Sakura," she said softly, and threw her into a tired hug, didn't pull away. "You _skank_. What the hell's with taking off without even telling me?"

"Sorry," Sakura muttered sullenly into her hair. She didn't sound it. Ino cleared her throat, began whispering.

"I know what's happening," she whispered quietly, "And how to fix it. How we can make it so that there'll be girls born again. How—"

She broke off rather abruptly as Sasuke wandered too close. His eyes lingered on her face for a second too long—she had the wild, impossible idea that he'd heard her.

She lowered her voice even further, "There's this woman. Back on the South-side. Her name's Tsunade—it's all her fault."

"What?!" Sakura twitched from within her embrace, voice several times louder than Ino's, "Are you high!? She's just a doctor! A poor doctor! She bandaged me up once—"

"Yeah, well," Ino tilted her head to the side, "How old d'you reckon she is?"

"I don't know," Sakura hissed darkly, "Maybe thirty? Unless she's had surgery, which I guess she has, so maybe about fifty? What's that have to do with anything?!"

"She's not," Ino mumbled darkly, "She's quite a bit older then that. About a hundred years older."

Sakura laughed derisively, "That's ridiculous. No matter how good your surgeon is, you can't move like that when you're a hundred and fifty. It just _isn't_ possible. There's bone and muscle rot, all this shit—"

Ino pulled back finally to flick the tip of her nose, eyebrows furrowed, "Save me the rant. I won't get it, anyways. Don't you get it Sakura? She's _not real_."

Sakura looked at her as if she was slightly crazy, "What?"

"She's just data," Ino hissed excitedly, "Her and these other two guys? They built this—this giant city thing. It's totally blocked off from the rest of the world. Have you ever wondered why we can't get out of here? Isn't it a bit strange that no one travels to other countries?!"

"But that's—" Sakura stuttered, frowned, "That's _crazy_. And that doesn't explain how a woman who's a hundred and fifty is able to run around like a twenty year old!"

"The three I mentioned? About fifteen years ago, their bodies were about to give out. They were some kind of nobility, see, had the best doctors in the world—all this stuff. That's who got sucked into this with them. All of us—their servants. They didn't want to die, were going to anyways. So they built this…this program. So they could live on as data."

Sakura turned that over carefully, "So…you're saying that the Tsunade I saw, who I could feel and hear and all that stuff—she was just data?"

"She said something about sensory input." Ino muttered, "Some of the bullets, even, they aren't real. But people think they are—their brains copy the pain. The program has its flaws, though. That's why we keep seeing the ash falling from the sky, why there are only baby boys, why…why all the genii's die. Why they have expiration dates."

Sakura mulled this over, her eyes lighting up suddenly, "So all we have to do is shut it down, and there'll be girls born again? We'll be able to see the rest of the world? Sasuke won't die?"

Ino stared back into her friend's fever bright eyes, felt her tongue choke up, sudden flickers of pity and guilt stretching at her conscience. She glance over at Sasuke, watched his chest rise and fall.

_Faker_, she thought savagely, and wanted to lie.

"No," she said softly, "No. Sasuke will still…die."

Sakura's breath caught, and she stared at Ino with huge, wounded eyes, "But—but you said—"

"The genii's," Ino said carefully, "They aren't…real. They're just part of the program. When we turn it off, all of them will disappear with it."

Sakura stared at her wordlessly, knees touching the ground and smeared with dirt, her combat boots too big, jumpsuit painfully skin-tight.

"I'm not doing it," she said suddenly, and lurched to her feet. "We—we aren't doing it."

"Sakura—" Ino frowned, rose to her feet along with the other girl, "Sakura listen to me—"

"No!" Sakura slapped her hands away, to a step in Sasuke's direction, "He is not data! He's real!"

Sasuke glanced at her and Ino from under his bangs, face blank. He had heard _everything_.

He glanced at his hands, flexed them slowly, taking in the dirt-encrusted creases, the smarting pink, raw patches, the dry scabs dotting his knuckles.

He _felt_ real.

"There was this war!" Ino yelled at Sakura, apparently determined to penetrate the hands Sakura had clapped over her ears, "World War III. Or something, whatever—it wiped out everyone. No, seriously, everyone. We're all that's left of the entire human race, and if we don't shut this thing down, there won't be any left on the entire planet!"

"Don't _lie_ to me!" Sakura snarled, and spun to face Sasuke, "Sasuke, let's—"

He moved so quickly, there was only the wince of pinched nerves before…before…

Sasuke caught Sakura's slumped form, and laid her out on the ground, carefully.

"Where's the generator?" he asked her quietly. Ino stared at him, her eyes huge and shocked.

"Are you serious? You're shutting it down?" she could only say dumbly. Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"Ye—"

"Hey," Naruto popped his head over Sasuke's shoulder, "Thanks for watching my back, asshole."

Sasuke flinched—damn Naruto could move quietly when he wanted to—and heard Ino's soft gasp of surprise.

And then he saw the others.

"Naruto," Sasuke twitched his chin at Gaara, "Who's he?"

Naruto grimaced, "I don't think you want to know—why is Sakura lying on the ground?" He had caught sight of her quite suddenly, voice climbing in alarm. Sasuke glanced back down at her.

"I didn't want her to see."

* * *

Ino tripped back towards where Shikamaru was waiting, dragging Sakura with her, and stood with him, watching as the six boys converged.

"Are they going?" Shikamaru asked once he saw her. Ino nodded, rubbing absently at her thigh.

"Yeah." She coughed, and then again, had to gasp for air as she forced out, "I told them where the generator was."

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows, Ino went back to coughing. "And they're all willing to disappear?"

Ino choked herself off, "I think they just want to take out as many of the bastard scientists as they can. 'Cept Naruto and Sasuke—they actually want to shut the thing down. And who knows what that Sai guy is thinking."

Shikamaru frowned as Ino began coughing still, pushed away his apathetic coma long enough to lay a hand on her back, "Hey, you alright?"

Ino rattled under his fingertips, "I'm—" she crouched, hugging herself into a ball and suffocated her coughs with her knees. Alarmed, he sank beside her, just happened to glimpse a flash of pale thigh when her skirt hiked up—

He could taste nothing but ash, suddenly. "Ino," he mumbled, shook her shoulder, "Ino, what's with the rash?"

It took her perhaps thirty seconds to answer him, before she turned down and checked it.

He could see the hard lines her body pulled into, something akin to shock or horror, before she abruptly, forcefully stood upright again and smoothed the fabric into place.

"It's nothing," she said steadily, bold face daring him to argue. "Nothing."

"Right." Shikamaru nodded slowly, "Nothing."

Naruto stuck his hands behind his head as he ambled back down the road, privately thinking that if he'd known this would have happened, he'd have spared himself the trouble of running away.

"You don't have to do this," he said for what felt like the fiftieth time, talking more to Kiba and Shino than Gaara. Shino turned towards him gravely.

"This is for the benefit of the human race. It is best we do so now." he intoned calmly. Naruto tried to stifle the chills creeping along his spine. Even if Shino was his ally—he was still pretty creepy. Not to be outdone, Kiba stuck his nose in the air and laughed, daredevil to hell.

"What, you think I'm scared?" he snorted coolly, "If you're trying to get out of this by having me say something first, you can forget it."

Naruto scowled, "No one asked for _your_ opinion, you bimbo."

Kiba snarled at him, which felt good. It felt safer than what he was about to do.

He hoped Sakura remembered him. Hoped her memories wouldn't be erased with his body. Hoped even more that there was some sort of glitch—that the hag had been lying, that Sasuke had it all wrong and he'd be fine.

He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye. Sasuke'd never have let him wake her up, and even then, he probably couldn't have.

It wasn't fair, Naruto reflected as they marched in silent unison towards the building. It wasn't fair that he felt so scared, and even that wasn't real.

He tried to picture her reaction, what she'd do when she realized they were gone. A part of him hoped she'd cry. A bigger part desperately wished she wouldn't. She'd be angry, he knew that, probably kill him if he wasn't already dead, so he'd have to make sure Sasuke was there too, so she could throttle him instead.

Yeah.

He'd do that.

Naruto grinned.

Just beside him, Gaara grinned too, teeth sharper, glint meaner, chewing eagerly on the air, desperate to kill the sorry bastards who thought they could keep him. Change him. Thought they were so much better, thought that being on the other side of the bars somehow put them a cut above.

He laughed so low it was more like a growl. He would see them die. He would taste it, bathe in it, laugh as they bled for him and then—and then they would know his love.

Before him, forbidden life flickered.

He broke forwards, ignoring Naruto's yells, felt the animal inside of him snarling to life, full of madness and bloodlust and then he was killing, and killing, and killing—

It felt like redemption, felt like something sweet, like justice and oh yes, he was God's avenging angel, just here, just him, and he would punish these sinners, could hear the lesser demons coming back behind him, without any of the justice but aiding him nonetheless, wolf and spider and demon, demon, demon.

Gaara laughed terribly, felt the blood stitch and splatter warm life across his face, seeping through his skin. His nails were sharp and his muscles splintering from strain, but he ripped and tore and gurgled in joy as the pain blossomed through his shoulder, his leg, metal pellets lodging and halting his rule, felling him on the battlefield, and he toppled to the ground, smelled the gore in the mud, stayed face down in the dirt, panting in the dirt.

The wolf and the spider hung on behind him, picking off the ones he hadn't reached like the scavengers they were, little sparks to his blaze of flame.

Death rushed up to meet him and Gaara ran screaming towards it, crazed with his own elation, was almost able to forget her betrayal.

_Mother…_

…_do you love me now?_

* * *

Sai led Sasuke and Naruto down the hall, systematically smashing the cameras as they went past, cold eyes sweeping through clinic-clean.

The building was mostly empty, anyways. Whoever had remained was either dead outside, or hiding. Sai glanced around the corner, motioning for them to stop, before he jerked his hand, indicating they move. Naruto and Sasuke rushed past him, sprinting into the room and—

Stopped dead, cross-eyed as they stared at the guns pointed just between their eyes.

A very old man smiled slightly, more than half his head covered in bandages, lone eye staring ruthlessly at Sasuke. "Good work, Sai," he muttered. Sasuke could hear the door snap shut behind them, listened to Sai's quiet footsteps as he approached them.

Naruto turned his head very slowly, blue eyes full of rage, "You sold us out."

"No, Naruto," Sai said very calmly, "This was my intention from the beginning. You had a picture of the last Uchiha genii on you—I was instructed to follow you, and see if you'd lead me to him."

Sasuke's mouth quirked down at the corners, hating the hurt, betrayed look splashed across Naruto's face.

His look-alike smiled very slightly, "Thank you. With the bounty, I won't have to do a thing for the rest of my life."

"Indeed," Danzo said lightly.

He jerked the gun away from Naruto's face. There was a flash of white and awful twin cracks, and then—red carnations bloomed in Danzo's wreckage of an eye, and the old man's grip slackened around his gun, sliding, and then falling to the floor.

Naruto spun just in time to see Sai curve back, his spine a graceful arch, calculating black eyes wide with surprise before he crashed to the floor with a cough, gun still gripped in his now lax hand, red staining and spreading across his shirt.

His mind blanked.

Sasuke snorted in something akin to black amusement, "Killed each other for the money, huh?"

He strode back out of the room, kicking Sai's arm out of his way with a kind of cold disgust written plain across his face.

Naruto was still standing, stunned, at Sai's seeping life, realizing suddenly how much he and Sasuke looked alike.

He could hear Sasuke's fast, determined strides clipping down the hall, and knew it was time. The betrayal rang a worn chord into the echoes of his being, but he stooped, and carefully shut the surprised, accusing black eyes, before following Sasuke to the elevator.

* * *

Five hundred feet below the Earth, Naruto decided, was really too far. The elevator wouldn't take them, denied access.

Which left cable sliding.

His hands burned from the friction, skin electrified from the cold rush of air, adrenaline scurrying through his system, very aware of the danger.

He felt alive.

He waited impatiently while Sasuke pried the elevator doors open, blowing on his smarting palms, feet tapping. And then they were in.

It wasn't as impressive as he'd thought it would me. There was big switch, at least, but no frantic beeping or pits of glowing light.

It just looked like a weird computer, one with bullet proof glass encasing it, humming quietly. His nerves jittered, and he felt ultra pixilated, the closer he got to it.

Sasuke was silent at his side.

"So," Naruto babbled nervously, "I mean, I've always known that you were part robot, but this is a bit much."

Sasuke leveled him with an ugly look. Naruto took that to mean it wasn't as funny a joke as he had originally thought. He laughed weakly, still terrified, still staring.

They stepped forwards as one, Sasuke's burnout of a laser eating through the barrier easily. It felt worse, somehow, knowing that there was nothing to stop them now.

After a second Sasuke reached his hands towards the switch, so Naruto did too, slapping his hand on top of Sasuke's.

Neither of them pulled it. Naruto swallowed.

"Hey, Sasuke." He nudged Sasuke with his elbow. Sasuke turned his head marginally.

"What?"

"We're real, right?" Naruto pushed the words out in a rush, "Because—because we can think, right? And we can feel and—and we weren't programmed to be friends, and we weren't programmed to…to…" he trailed off uncertainly, biting his lip. Sasuke glanced at him, considering.

"I don't know," he shrugged, smirked, "She's going to be so pissed."

He didn't have to ask who he was talking about. Naruto laughed. "Oh. Oh _man_, yeah."

He could feel the head Sasuke was giving off, could hear his friend breath.

"So, since we're about to disappear and all," his voice wasn't as light as he had intended. He didn't really care, "You might was well admit you had the hots for her."

Sasuke definitely glared, "I 'had the hots for her?!'"

Naruto pretended to gape, "You admitted it!"

Sasuke snorted, rolled his eyes but only said, "Who _says_ that?!"

"_You_ just did," Naruto pointed out, and actually laughed. He thought Sasuke might have smiled. Eventually, though, his cackles left them with silence, and they were back to staring at their fate. It was, quite literally, in their hands.

"I want—" Sasuke said suddenly, broke off, sighed, "She'll be okay, right?"

Naruto grinned, "I knew it. I _knew_ you liked her." He continued before Sasuke could kill him, "She's got Ino. She'll be fine."

"Huh." Sasuke sighed, dropping his head to the ground.

They had dragged this out too long, were starting to loose resolve. Naruto flexed his fingers. "Hey, Sasuke. You were the best friend I ever had."

"Tch," Sasuke snorted.

They pulled the switch and—fading into

light was

sorry sakura

naruto's

disappear

hand by mine

left you behind

fading faster

doesn't hurt but—

i'll miss you

i'm _real_

love you

* * *

Sasuke was only aware of being, of clinging onto thoughts and distant memories desperately, drowning in his own oblivion, insubstantial nothings just keeping his head from dropping under.

Nothing.

He was nothing.

He turned them over, admired the jewel-bright, glittering eyes and smiles as sweet as lullabies. Pricked his fingers on the diamond shards of bitterness and longing, crystallized poison swirling through his nothingness.

If he'd had the lips to do it, he'd have screamed.

_Where are you…?_

The black, dark place he had been drifting in abruptly flash-flooded to white, light so painfully brilliant that it stung, pushing spikes of pain and tears to the surface.

Sakura made him feel like that, sometimes. Sentimental and stupid and so _vulnerable_, so easily broken, if he wasn't already.

He imagined she'd cried for him. Hoped she had. Hoped that the beginnings of petty crime and banter and tentative smiles, weird, to stretch his mouth like that.

Naruto. Naruto must be like him, now, or—or maybe better. Brighter, shining, still aware of himself instead of being just a bundle of distorted soul and blueprints of lifeline. He couldn't believe that Naruto would have just disappeared, couldn't believe that anything could extinguish a spark so brilliant.

He could remember how small her hands were. How careful he had to be—how his eyes always seemed to be black, when she was around, blood irises spinning out.

That was stupid. Sasuke slipped, almost fell back into the quiet whirlwind of zeroes and ones, dragged himself out at the last moment, jittering back into place, still unfocused and off guard by the damnable light.

He was nothing.

There was nothing.

She would be far away and growing up and meeting someone who could treat her right, make her happy enough to always sparkle. And that was what he'd wanted, right? That was…that was all he had wanted.

With that thought spinning through him, Sasuke shrugged himself from the bright, and began to slide smoothly, gratefully, into the comfortingly dark spin of numbers.

Just data. He was just—

—zerozerozeroonezerooneonezero—

_Sasuke._

He kept going, relieved at the sweetness of oblivion—

_Sasuke._

No. No, I didn't want to stop, just let me disappear—

_Sasuke!_

Sasuke squinted—eyes?!—and turned back towards the light, hands coming up against the glare, relishing the dark silhouette.

_Come back with me._

_Sakura?_ He shifted, stepped forwards disbelievingly. _But you're supposed to be gone—_

Her hand was very small, stretched towards him desperately. Sasuke regarded it almost quizzically.

_But I have no where to go back to. I don't exist. I'm just a mash of compressed computer chips, I'm—_

_Come on._

Sasuke wavered on the razor's edge between the dark, blissful nothing and the blinding white temptation. He wanted that, desperately wanted for his chance to de-exist, to forget the feel of a gun, the rip of skin, the tear of pain, Itachi's explosion, demon containing boys—

He had liked the way she got angry at him. Liked the way she stomped and screamed and looked so electrifying alive, her eyes bitingly green and snapping sparks, brilliant, hot rushes of life and—

He had liked the way her face softened when she smiled, liked the ridiculous ache of grumpy gentleness he'd feel, liked—

He reached out from the darkness and took her hand.

_Okay._

* * *

"Will she be okay, you think?" Ino asked for maybe the thousandth time. Shikamaru shrugged.

"Probably. I mean, she's never going to have a little girl, and she'll have to deal with a flakey sky, but…yeah, she'll probably be fine." He shifted, helped her stand carefully. Ino kept one of her hands pressed against her stomach, grimacing at the pain. Her infection was spreading—but at least now, with the war over, she stood a chance of getting in to see a doctor.

And at least Shikamaru wasn't sick. So maybe she hadn't had the virus when she'd slept with him. She hoped that was the case.

Ino blew out a long breath, toying with the end of her hair. "I can't believe she never got over them. She's throwing away her whole life, for some stupid _boys_. For _imaginary_, stupid boys."

She walked to the window and squinted out. Far below her, cradled between the wide-set mountains, her country was falling to ruin. No body had wanted to stay, when the generator shut down. Sakura was the only person who was left within the decrepit walls.

"She's scheduled to turn it back on, in a minute," Shikamaru checked his watch, and then joined her at the window. Behind them, refugees stretched out, eating or chatting in the enormous, roughly built dining hall. They were a part of colony three hundred seventy six, and the one closest to the old country.

Before their eyes, a hazy green force field wavered into place, and sat glowing glumly in the twilight.

"She really did it," Ino sighed. A slight, almost bitter smile pulled at her features. "Crazy girl—living off her dreams."

Shikamaru leaned against the glass heavily, "They can be so sweet."

* * *

Before her eyes, Sasuke began appearing, wearing the same jumpsuit he had the day he disappeared. She had promised herself she wouldn't cry. Found she was anyways.

Naruto had been easier to find than Sasuke, but she'd expected that. Been relieved at how easily he followed her—and so, so scared when she hadn't been able to find Sasuke. It was almost like losing him all over again.

She didn't think there was anything worse then that.

He was still holding her hand, when he finally appeared, looking groggy and confused and grimacing, holding on much too tight.

He was here.

Sakura let out a shout, throwing her arms around his neck and laughing when he lost his balance, falling to the floor with a groan. She was laughing and crying and hugging him hard, harder even than Naruto, who was watching them both with a bemused sort of eye roll that she loved and—

Sasuke put her arms around her carefully, didn't push or pull, just left them there, lukewarm, and it was so much more than enough.

Because they were real.

They were back.

_

* * *

_

but this is a temporary forever


End file.
